Books

The world’s leading museum directors discuss the future of museums in the wake of 2020’s pandemic and social upheavals. 2020 ushered in a new decade and with it a series of unforeseen events that have reoriented the future. As the coronavirus forced...

Cabinet 13 looks exactly like any normal filing cabinet…Except this cabinet is filled with files on the ‘symptomers’, humans whose strange abilities and bizarre experiences might just mark the emergence of a new species. But to Mr Kong, the harried...

Over the course of more than 50 years, renowned American artist Ellsworth Kelly made approximately 400 postcard collages, some of which served as exploratory musings and others as studies for larger works in other mediums. They range from his first...

The bazaar quarter of Istanbul is a mirror of the city itself: many-faceted and hectic, extraordinarily beautiful and chaotic at the same time. On the historic peninsula, centuries-old market halls and mosques share space with kiosks and new concrete...

Combining decades of ethnographic research with stunning photography, this book is a celebration of the customs and clothing of ethnic-minority groups in China. Aesthetic influences drawn from China have long resonated throughout Western art, design,...

Carrie Mae Weems has often confronted the uncomfortable truths of racism and race relations over the course of her nearly 40-year career. In The Shape of Things she focuses her unflinching gaze at what she describes as the circus like quality of...

A guide to going on dates with people to visit trees in Philadelphia, PA.  There are 25 more tree-dates out there! What is our social relationship to plants? Can we create a feeling of belonging within a landscape? Tree Dates provide an opportunity...

Since the 1960s, contemporary art has overturned the accepted historical categorizations of what constitutes art, who creates it, and how it is represented and validated. This guide brings the subject up to date, exploring the notion of “contemporary”...

Acknowledging how architecture, painting, sculpture, and the decorative arts reflect the culture and society of their time, this latest addition to the Art Essentials series invites the reader to experience and appreciate the entirety of Western art from...

An absorbing group biography revealing how exiles from war-torn France brought surrealism to America, sparking the movement that became abstract expressionism. In 1957 the American artist Robert Motherwell made an unexpected claim: "I have only known...

Generations of artisans in Japan have forged and refined their crafts to become the envy of the world. Each of the country’s regions are renowned for specific traditions relating to local materials and the natural world in which they are produced. While...

Perfect for students and casual and professional artists, with lots of great reference information for print collectors as well, this is the ultimate guide to the ins and outs of every variety of printmaking practiced today. In addition to in-depth...

The 2007 volume of Ceramics in America is devoted to the topic of Bonnin and Morris soft-paste porcelain made in Philadelphia between 1770 and 1772. For the first time, all nineteen known objects from this important American "china" manufactory along...

By Felice Fischer and Kyoko Kinoshita Art of Japan presents one hundred highlights of Japanese art from the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, dating from the Neolithic period to today. Among them are a temple and a teahouse, acquired in 1928,...

In The Critic as Artist, arguably the most complete exploration of his aesthetic thinking, and certainly the most entertaining, Oscar Wilde harnesses his famous wit to demolish the supposed boundary between art and criticism...

Despite wide interest in Woolf’s writings, and in the artists and art critics in her Bloomsbury circle, there is no accessible edition or selection of essays dedicated to her writings on art. This volume collects her longest essay on painting, “Walter...

Mark S. Tucker (Author), Lloyd DeWitt (Editor), Seymour Slive (Preface), Blaise Ducos (Contributor), Franziska Gottwald (Contributor), George Keyes (Contributor), Shelley Perlove (Contributor), Larry Silver (Contributor), Ken Sutherland...

There are many myths about the artist Edgar Degas—from Degas the misanthrope to Degas the deviant, to Degas the obsessive. But there is no single text that better stokes the fire than Degas and His Model, a short memoir published by Alice Michel,...

Photography is now more popular than ever thanks to the rapid development of digital cameras. Read This if You Want to Take Great Photographs is ideal for this new wave of snap shooters using DSLR, compact system and bridge cameras. It contains no...

Best known for his iconic print Under the Wave off Kanagawa, also known as the Great Wave, Katsushika Hokusai was a revolutionary printmaker. His mastery of ukiyo-e in the nineteenth century has inspired generations of artists since, and his works helped...

‘Big Type’ explores graphic design and identity work where the emphasis is on typography. The visual landscape in which today’s designers are contributing to is very cluttered and the digital world alone is so vast, that sometimes it...

A compilation of esoteric musings, Kandinsky: Incarnating Beauty explores Alexandre Kojève’s philosophical approach to the relationship between art and beauty. A teacher to Jacques Lacan, André Breton, and Albert Camus, Kojève defined art as the act of...

A popular classic is back! Famed quilt collector Roderick Kiracofe’s sumptuous hardcover book of 150 offbeat quilts became an instant classic when it  was published in 2014, inspiring a nation of quiltmakers and fine artists. In a...

Bright and carefree, Zitkála-Šá grows up on the Yankton Sioux reservation in South Dakota with her mother until Quaker missionaries arrive, offering the reservation’s children a free education. The catch: They must leave their parents behind and travel...

Painted about 1550–50 by Agnolo Bronzino (Italian, 1503–1572), this remarkable portrait depicts the young Florentine aristocrat Lodovico Capponi (b. 1534), an associate of the Medici court. Capponi wears black  and white, his family’s armorial...

Working across photography, film, video, painting, and installation, his work references and re-imagines African American and African visual culture, from hip hop vernacular to Nefertiti, while nodding to traditions of spirituality and Surrealism. This...

In this volume, the writer and Rodin scholar Rachel Corbett selects excerpts from the famous sculptor’s book Cathedrals of France,  first published in 1914, just before the outbreak of World War I.  Cathedrals were central to the way Rodin...

Two authorities on popular culture reveal the ways in which art can enhance mood and enrich lives - now available in paperback. This passionate, thought-provoking, often funny, and always-accessible book proposes a new way of looking at art, suggesting...

Set amid the glimmering lakes and disappearing forests of the early United States, The Forest imagines how a wide variety of Americans experienced their lives. Part truth, part fiction, and featuring both real and invented characters, the book follows...

In 1941, Professor Richard Evan Schultes took a leave from Harvard and disappeared into the Amazon, where he spent the next twelve years mapping uncharted rivers and living among dozens of Indian tribes. In the 1970s, he sent two prize students, Tim...

One Hundred Years of Solitude is a classic novel known throughout the world. One of the 20th century’s enduring works of art, it is the ultimate achievement in a Nobel Prize-winning career. The story of the village of Macondo, as seen through the lives...

The followup to the much-loved Easy Peasy, Little Green Fingers is packed full of even more fun gardening activities for children! The followup to the much-loved Easy Peasy, Little Green Fingers is packed full of even more fun gardening activities for...

A clever, quirky picture-book biography of one of the most important figures of modern and contemporary art. Louise  Bourgeois was a world-famous artist who told stories of her life through her art until she was 98 years old. She drew, wove, and...

Colors of Film is an introduction to film through the lens of color. Taking you from the 1940s to today, it showcases the most extraordinary use of color and provides visually appealing palettes of some of the best movies ever made. Taking you on...

Friends are an important part of every toddler's social life ... and now, part of their first art collection! Friendships  are among the most important relationships we have. Friends play, laugh, and share - and comfort one another in times of need...

A tender and wise ode to love, illustrated with an expertly curated selection of fine art for young children. Art,  like anything else, is only as meaningful and interesting as it is relatable. For toddlers and preschoolers, connecting their own...

Creating Connections features over 70 paintings, sculptures, drawings, and watercolors from the Rosenthal Collection of work by self-taught artists. This richly illustrated publication explores the mysterious connections we have with works of art and...

Edward Hopper's canvasses are filled with stripped-down spaces and unrelenting light, evocative landscapes, and the lonely aspects of men  and women seemingly isolated in their surroundings. What kind of man had this haunting vision, and what kind...

A meditation on suffering, resilience, creativity, and grace. In 1942 Missouri Pettway, newly suffering the loss of her husband, pieced together a quilt out of his old, worn work clothes. Nearly six decades later her daughter Arlonzia Pettway,...

A critical look at the renegade spirit that permeates Japanese prints and the posters of fin-de-siècle Paris. Both the Edo period (1603–1868) in Japan and the late nineteenth century in France witnessed a multitude of challenges to the status quo from...

A modern classic that invites readers to discover a unique ritual that has come to symbolize wisdom, beauty, and the elegant simplicity of Asian culture. Kakuzo Okakura celebrates the Way of Tea from its ancient origins in Chinese Taoism to its...

In 2018, just a few weeks after his father’s death, Dean Rader made a pilgrimage to the Gagosian Gallery in New York to see a retrospective of Cy Twombly’s work, In Beauty It is Finished: Drawings 1951-2008. The exhibit led to a poem that would become...

The catalog to the most ambitious exhibition of the work of Violet Oakley (1874–1961) to date, A Grand Vision highlighted Oakley’s spirit of civic humanism and her prolific accomplishments as a muralist, portraitist, stained glass designer, and...

On June 19, 1865, in Galveston, General Gordon Granger of the Union Army delivered the message that African Americans in Texas were free. Since then, Juneteenth, as the day has come to be known, has steadily gained recognition throughout the United...

Recalling a charcoal she made in 1916, Georgia O'Keeffe later wrote, “I  have made this drawing several times—never remembering that I had made  it before—and not knowing where the idea came from.” These drawings, and the majority of O’Keeffe’s...

In this volume, 50 masterpieces by Vincent van Gogh (1853–90) from the prestigious Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo—which houses one of the  greatest Van Gogh collections—document the Dutch painter’s entire career, on the eve of the 170th...

Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) was committed to depicting landscapes throughout his entire life. From his earliest days in art school until the year before his death, landscape remained the prime genre through which he mediated his perception of the world and...

From Gandhi to Rosa Parks, the Arab Spring to Black Lives Matter, this introduction to the power of protests covers nearly every continent to show young readers that they can be effective on their own or as part of a movement. Filled with...

At a time when almost everything can be digitally done up to perfection,  the smudges and smears by graphite can be refreshing to the eye and unapologetically human – touching viewers to the core. As a creative tool, it can also be the simplest and...

An essential guide for emerging artists learning how to take pictures of places. From the author of the bestselling Read This If You Want To Take Great Photographs series, this jargon–free introduction covers all aspects of photographing places,...

The great painter, book illustrator and print designer Katsushika  Hokusai (1760–1849) has become the best known of all Japanese artists  and one of the most famous and influential artists in the world. He was a key figure for the Japonisme...

This volume presents sketches and textile designs by the great Russian  French modernist artist Sonia Delaunay alongside her paintings and interior and fashion designs. It demonstrates how she transferred her color philosophy of “Simultanism,” which...

A profound examination of the complex constructs that have kept “outsider” and self-taught artists on the margins of the mainstream. The artists in Boundary Trouble in American Vanguard Art defy binary constructs of insider and outsider. Some are...

The story of art as it’s never been told before, from the Renaissance to the present day, with more than 300 works of art. How many women artists do you know? Who makes art history? Did women even work as artists before the twentieth century? And what...

An intimate study of the creation and use of embroidered quilts. In Bengal, mothers swaddle their infants and cover their beds in  colorful textiles that are passed down through generations. They create these kantha from layers of soft, recycled...

Textile artist Karen Selk delves into the amazing world of wild silk and the Indigenous people of India who raise these silkworms. Readers will be drawn into the captivating world of a unique living culture that has been engaged in a sustainable industry...

Philadelphia has thousands of public artworks—more than any other city in America. Ed Hille has 40 years of experience as an award-winning photographer. In Plain Sight brings the two together—the dedicated artist and a spectacular subject. Throughout...

"Wild spinach about 7 feet tall and fully mature.  Well-fed wild spinach is well-branched and produces a huge quantity of  seeds when mature. The leaves are still edible at this stage but are  reduced in quality, taking on a somewhat...

From the mountains to the ocean shores, from the wetlands to the deserts, North America teems with flora and fauna in delicately balanced ecosystems found nowhere else on Earth. With this book in hand, you will understand the language of nature and see...

African American history has produced countless exceptional heroes, leaders, and role models. The graphic novel, BLAM! Black Lives Always Mattered!, tells  the inspiring stories of 14 important Black Philadelphians, such as opera singer Marian...

In an ever-evolving world, the only thing to count on is change. A path is never the same path twice. Everything we experience, be it real or imagined, influences what is around us—even if the changes are sometimes too small to recognize! For three...

Covering the oldest and most traditional ways to make pots, Handbuilt is a beginner's guide to hand building with clay – no pottery wheel required. This book will teach you the building blocks to working with clay and how to apply a professional finish...

Explores ways to use colour in the home to varying degrees, taking the reader into the world of the vibrant, happy house. Joyful case studies of homes that range from lightly speckled to heavily doused in colour with interviews from the renowned...

The essential exploration of the design, history, and culture of the motorcycle – an icon of the machine age. Motorcycles are ubiquitous in the world’s streets and cities, evolving over decades in engineering and design to meet individual transportation...

An overview of the work of illustrator and designer Milton Glaser during the 1960s and 70s. From 1954, when he co-founded the legendary Push Pin Studios, to the late '70s, Milton Glaser was one of the most celebrated graphic designers of his day, whose...

Elegant. Refined. Exclusionary. Interrupted. The foundations of the fine art world are shaking. Beyoncé and Jay-Z break the internet by blending modern Black culture with fine art in their iconic music video filmed in the Louvre. Kehinde Wiley powerfully...

It is human nature to look to the past when seeking inspiration, particularly in art and related creative fields. Unlike other genres that can be attributed to a specific era or style, folk art is harder to define or categorize due to its special...

In this wordless picture book, the Western world’s greatest art is closer than you expect. A boy’s daily routines bring him face-to-face with Escher’s winding stairs, Banksy’s balloon girl, Picasso’s dancing  fauns, and many more familiar sights...

Take a guided tour through the art museum featuring modern art movements from Impressionism to Pop Art! Join a dad and his child for an interactive visit through the art museum. The guided tour turns into an incredible maze adventure as you go through...

A Kid’s Guide to Backyard Bugs is filled with fascinating  facts about the United States’ most common insects, including where they live, what they eat, and how they move. Which insect can live without food for up to a whole year? Which insect grows...

A Kid’s Guide to Backyard Birds is filled with fascinating facts about the most common birds, including where they live, what they  eat, and how they sound when they sing. How did the Brown-Headed Cowbird get its name? Which bird can fly up to 40...

Grandpa told Mom, and Mom told me: The secret of a plant lives in every little seed. Seeds are truly amazing! Did you know that every seed, no matter how small (microscopic) or large (weighing up to 14 pounds),  contains everything it needs to one...

Stan Tekiela’s famous Birds of Pennsylvania Field Guide has been delighting bird watchers for years. Now, the award-winning author has written the perfect bird identification guide for children! The Kids’ Guide to Birds of Pennsylvania features 88 of the...

Master naturalist Nancy Lawson takes readers on a fascinating tour of the vibrant web of nature outside our back door—where animals and plants perceive and communicate using marvelous sensory abilities we are only beginning to understand. Organized into...

Reading a board book together is a fun way to introduce young children to fine art. The sleepy trees, golden haystacks, and juicy fruits of In the Garden with Van Gogh will delight little ones. Playful rhyming texts accompany the artist's timeless...

In an age where most everything is mass-produced and technology has become the filter through which we experience much of life, there is a growing appreciation of the handmade. From scented soaps to designer jeans, leather wallets and jewelry, furniture...

In The Treadwell’s Book of Plant Magic, author Christina Oakley Harrington—founder of the renowned Treadwell’s Books in London—focuses exclusively on the magical powers attributed to the plants. She has sifted through hundreds of traditional sources to...

For generations, Black artists from the American South have forged a unique art tradition. Working in near isolation from established practices, they have created masterpieces in clay, driftwood, roots, soil, and recycled and cast-off objects that...

 The children want to go to the park with Grandad, but they can’t leave until they find his lost socks…and his shoes…and even his teeth! Will they ever get out of Grandad’s busy house? With a trove of wonders to discover on every page, this seek and...

This intriguing child's-eye view of Monet and the development of impressionism takes as its premise how artists flocked to Giverny at the turn of the 20th century to study the painter's technique. It tells the story of Ella, the daughter of one such...

The Reverend Howard Finster (1916–2001) was called the “backwoods William Blake” and the “Andy Warhol of the South,” and he is considered the godfather of contemporary American folk and visionary art. This book is the first interpretive analysis of the...

Walks to the Paradise Garden is the last unpublished manuscript of the late American poet, photographer, publisher, Black Mountain alumnus and bon viveur Jonathan Williams (1929–2008). This 352-page book chronicles Williams' road trips across the...

Bill Traylor (ca. 1853–1949) came to art-making on his own and found his creative voice without guidance; today he is remembered as a renowned American artist. Traylor was born into slavery on an Alabama plantation, and his experiences spanned multiple...

A landmark book documenting the first-ever art amusement park - launched in 1987 in Hamburg, Germany - in anticipation of its global reintroduction. In the late 1980s, more than 30 of the era's most acclaimed artists - including Jean-Michel Basquiat,...

Teach children their first colors with Mudpuppy’s Andy Warhol Colors board book featuring the artist’s bright and colorful artwork. A beautiful, artful board book for children and parents alike.    Author/illustrator: Andy Warhol Board...

A biography of self-taught (outsider) artist Bill Traylor, a former slave who at the age of eighty-five began to draw pictures based on his memories and observations of rural and urban life in Alabama. Growing up as an enslaved boy on an Alabama cotton...

 By Rachel Arauz, Ann Temkin, Anne D'Hamoncourt, et al.Featuring pivotal works of twentieth-century painting and sculpture, this book handsomely illustrates a selection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s outstanding modern art collection,...

A reconsideration of Duchampian erotics in the context of fetishism. Eroticism served as an enduring and potent guiding principle for Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968) as he traced his singular path through 20th-century art. Duchamp himself acknowledged that...

Now available in a new edition, this book gives a lively overview of the world’s greatest photographers. This dynamic introduction to the most  important photographers from the inception of photography to today bears witness to the magic of the...

Meeting the Buddhas is a modern classic, giving a vivid and accessible introduction to all the main figures meditated on in the Indo-Tibetan Buddhist tradition. First published in 1993, this new edition incorporates a section on Vajrakīla, as well as new...

First words are everywhere you look, especially in a house! This visually striking picture book catalogs an impressive array of household items, naming the delightful miscellany that comprises a life. The charming collections are creative and unexpected,...

Make a time capsule of your year with watercolor. One Color a Day is a simple and meditative way to visually document each day. Within  the book’s orderly gridded layout, you simply paint a daily color and  add a word or phrase that reflects...

Read This If You Want to Take Great Photographs of People is one of the best photography books to read if you want to learn how to take good pictures of people. This straight–talking guide will give you top portrait photography tips and is ideal for...

A short and pithy introduction to the most important feminist artworks from the late 1960s to the present.   Emerging in the late 1960s as women artists struggled to “de-gender” their work to compete in a male-dominated arena, the feminist art...

Designer, artist, and educator Mitch Goldstein's experience as student and teacher gives guidance and inspiration to help students get the most out of design school. Life  as a design student is filled with questions. Rochester Institute of...

Women’s Art Work introduces readers to the lives and work of the  world’s most renowned artists. This collection celebrates the creativity of  women in more than 30 biographies, investigating their practices and  exploring their...

A life-altering journey through the science of neuroaesthetics that offers proof of how our brains and bodies are transformed when we participate in the arts and aesthetic experiences, and how this knowledge can improve our physical and mental health,...

A fascinating, revelatory portrait of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and its treasures by a former New Yorker staffer who spent a decade as a museum guard. Millions of people climb the grand marble staircase to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art every...

A pocket-sized resource for identifying the native trees, commonly encountered exotics, and popular ornamentals of the Philadelphia metropolitan area and adjacent counties in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. Each of the 118 tree-identification...

The  ultimate insider's guide to Philadelphia for locals and experienced  travelers• Features interesting and unusual places not found in traditional travel guides• Part of the international 111 Places/111  Shops series with over...