Meet John Lennon, the boy from Liverpool who dreamed of peace.
 
When John Lennon formed a band while still in school, he couldn’t have known they were about to change music forever. With their exciting new sounds, rebel attitudes and gift for songwriting, everyone went crazy for The Beatles. Today, John is remembered not just as a musical icon, but as a champion of world peace. This inspiring book features stylish and quirky illustrations and extra facts at the back, including a biographical timeline with historical photos and a detailed profile of the legendary Beatle’s life.

Specifications - Hardcover. 32 pages.

Meet Vivienne Westwood, the flame-haired fashion designer and impresario.

When Vivienne was a young woman, she wasn't sure how a working class girl from England could make a living in the art world. But after discovering her passion for design and jewelry making, she erupted onto the fashion scene with a bang. Vivienne's designs became iconic, and she became famous for letting her clothes speak for themselves. This moving book features stylish and quirky illustrations and extra facts at the back, including a biographical timeline with historical photos and a detailed profile of the designer's life.

Specifications - Hardcover. 32 pages.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of the fabric works from the last two decades in the career of legendary artist Louise Bourgeois. “I’ve always had a fascination with the needle,” she said, “the magic power of the needle. The needle is used to repair damage. It’s a claim to forgiveness.” This body of work began when the artist started incorporating clothes from all stages of her life into her art, and later expanded to include a range of other textiles such as bed linen, handkerchiefs, tapestry, and needlepoint. The fabric works mine the themes of identity and sexuality, trauma and memory, guilt and reparation, and serve as metaphors for emotional and psychological states. The catalogue – which accompanies the exhibition at the Hayward Gallery, London, and the Gropius Bau, Berlin – features works from numerous series, including the monumental Cell installations, figurative sculptures, and abstract drawings.

LOUISE BOURGEOIS (1911–2010) is one of the most influential artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, best known for her formally inventive and psychologically powerful sculptures.

Specifications - Paperback. 208 pages.

Yayoi Kusama: 1945 to Now is the most comprehensive survey of the artist’s work to date, profiling an artist who has achieved truly global acclaim in her lifetime. In a wide-ranging career spanning seven decades and multiple media, she established profound connections with audiences around the world. Emerging at the forefront of artistic experimentation in Asia in the mid-20th century, Kusama soon became a central figure in the New York art scene of the 1960s. Now in her nineties, Kusama continues to communicate her highly personal and spiritual world view through her art.

The volume is structured around six thematic sections, “Infinity,” “Accumulation,” “The Biocosmic,” “Radical Connectivity,” “Death,” and “Joy of Life,” each of which is intended to elucidate the aesthetic and philosophical concerns at the heart of the artist’s oeuvre.

This book features selections from Kusama’s hitherto unpublished writings, as well as correspondence with Georgia O’Keeffe, an interview with critic and curator Yoshie Yoshida, and a roundtable discussion from leading curators and Kusama experts. Also included are essays exploring different aspects of her practice, and a detailed illustrated chronology that places her life’s work in context. Appealing not only to those already familiar with Kusama and her work, but also to anyone discovering it for the first time, this monograph reveals an artist who, while shaped by international artistic currents, remains deeply connected to the traditions and culture of her native Japan.

Specifications - Hardcover. 400 pages.

Founded by Egyptian-born Gaby Aghion in 1952, Chloé pioneered luxury ready-to-wear that was all about ease and femininity, offering an elegant haute bohemian style for the modern, liberated Parisienne. Resolutely contemporary, the house spotted and hired a young Karl Lagerfeld as early as the 1960s: he stayed for over two decades, achieving fame and recognition worldwide through his Chloé work, before Stella McCartney (and her then assistant Phoebe Philo) succeeded him straight out of fashion school.

“All this must be either surfed or painted”: This is the underlying sentiment behind Raymond Pettibon’s iconic works of surfers and waves in this quintessential volume dedicated to the motif.

Pettibon is known for his characteristically enigmatic aesthetic and sharply satirical critiques of American culture. Though drenched in cynicism, his work empathizes with the dizzying madness of our own humanity as it engages both so-called high and low culture. Perhaps most poetic among the many motifs present in Pettibon’s oeuvre is the surfer. In 1985, Pettibon began his series of surfers and waves––which he continues to work on to this day––popular for depicting a lone surfer silently carving “a line of beauty” along an impossibly large wave. 

This book spotlights a selection of more than one hundred surfers from the series, from smaller monochromatic works on paper to colorful large-scale paintings applied directly to the wall. For Pettibon’s protagonist in these works, surfing exists apart from all else. Momentarily he achieves sublimity on the wave, distant yet synced with turbulent reality. We are forced to confront our own scale: small and feeble in the face of the power of nature, what is beyond our control. Pettibon’s lyrical writings on these painted surfaces—both his own and lines taken from literature—reference his own philosophies and the confusions of reality: he critiques and highlights the hypocrisies and vanities of the world he engages. To help navigate, the scholar Brian Lukacher explores art-historical antecedents in Pettibon’s work, particularly the seascapes of J. M. W. Turner, and Jamie Brisick, the writer and former professional surfer, examines the Southern California surf and music culture of Pettibon’s youth. Professional big wave surfers Emi Erickson and Stephanie Gilmore also describe the sensory experience of conquering the enormous waves depicted in Pettibon’s works.

Specifications - Hardcover. 208 pages.

A sweeping selection of Donald Judd’s iconic and ambitious works alongside a diverse collection of newly commissioned writings.

One of the most significant American artists of the postwar period, Judd rigorously experimented with color, form, material, and space. The works in this catalogue range from the artist’s expansive installations to self-contained single units, yielding valuable new insights into his process and approach. The survey includes one of his largest and most intricate installations of wall-mounted plywood boxes, conceived in 1986. Other works include variations on some of Judd’s most recognizable forms, executed in materials such as Corten steel, plexiglass, copper, plywood, brushed aluminum, and painted aluminum. Brilliant and exacting reproductions capture these works in vivid detail. Following the major Judd retrospective at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 2020, this book serves as a companion volume.

With contributions from a wide range of voices—art historians, critics, writers, and performers— this publication includes rich new writings on Judd’s oeuvre, art criticism, and enduring influence. Artworks 1970–1994 is published on the occasion of the eponymous 2020 exhibition at David Zwirner New York.

Specificaitons - Hardcover. 284 pages.

There has never been a period in photography’s long history – no school, no movement – when flowers have not been a central focus, whether in the form of the classic still life, the botanical study, incorporated into portraiture and studies of the human body, documented in street photography, or used subversively in surrealist collage and montage.

It's a country that feels comfortingly familiar for many, yet beyond the clichés lies a complexity and variety that's perpetually surprising. For more than a decade, Monocle has roamed the length of the nation and The Monocle Book of Italy is the result of our dedicated reporting. Join us as we throw down our towels at the best beaches, sit front row at dazzling runway shows, call in at vineyards, gelato spots and furniture fairs, and maybe even hit a disco or two. See Italy through a whole new lens.

Specifications - Hardcover. 302 pages. 

Back in 2007 the first issues of Monocle magazine hit newsstands and kiosks around the globe. At its core was a pledge to commission all original photography – capturing the world on film, on the ground and in the moment. In the years since, Monocle has continued in its pursuit of documenting through its unique lens – from embassies and personal residences to world leaders and cultural stars. Each issue has featured a dedicated image-led Expo section celebrating lesser-known locales, obscure events and curious characters through truly outstanding photography. Syrian cities, French legionnaires, Thai festival goers, brutalist architecture and private member’s clubs have all graced the pages of the magazine.

The Monocle Book of Photography draws on the best of these visual stories from an archive a decade and a half in the making. A handsomely produced linen-bound edition, the book also features original reporting about each of the assignments, as well as first-hand accounts from the photographers and editors involved.

Specifications - Hardcover. 276 pages.

The first self-curated monograph by Norm Architects, Soft Minimal showcases a range of works which facilitated their establishment as key figures within Nordic design. Presenting residential and commercial projects throughout Scandinavia, Italy and Japan, Norm reflects on Nordic traditions, modernist principles, and the importance of natural materials. Exploring a creative process that makes the visual speak to all senses, the book becomes insightful, inspirational, and deeply poetic.

Specifications - Hardcover. 304 pages. 24.5 × 33 cm