Book reviews

Author: Patrick Bringley

A revelatory portrait of a great museum and the moving story of one guard’s quest to find solace and meaning in art.

‘Who would have thought that the outstanding art book of you would have been written not by a curator or an art historian or even an artist – but by a museum guard?’ Sunday Times

When Patrick’s older brother dies at twenty-six, all he wants is to retreat. So, he does. He quits his job and seeks refuge in the most beautiful place he can think of: New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.

All the Beauty in the World recounts Patrick’s time as a museum guard, keeping quiet vigil over some of our greatest treasures and uncovering the Met’s innermost secrets. As his connection to the art and the life that swirls around it grows, so does Patrick – and gradually he emerges transformed by heartbreak, community and the power of art to illuminate life in all its pain, pleasure and hope.

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Author:  Adrian Shaughnessy

Five years in the making, Pentagram: Living by Design (two volumes) is the definitive statement on fifty years of Pentagram, and an in-depth survey of the group from its beginnings in 1970s London to its current status as one of the powerhouses of international design.

Book one, The Biography, offers a comprehensive analysis of the group, its partners, its achievements, its multidisciplinary approach and its unique business model. This is accompanied by a plethora of images (some never published), a visual essay of Pentagram’s work across four main sectors, a selection of partners’ writings, a Pentagram family tree, and much more.

Book two, The Directory, has profiles of fifty partners, past and present, accompanied by extensive coverage of their work. It’s a stellar roll call: from the five famous founders to some of the most celebrated names in contemporary design. It also includes a list of everyone who worked in the firm’s various offices.

Both books are designed by Tony Brook and the Spin design team.

Find out more about Pentagram: Living by Design →

Penny Sparke (Anthology Editor), Ersi Ioannidou (Anthology Editor), Pat Kirkham (Anthology Editor), Stephen Knott (Anthology Editor), Jana Scholze (Anthology Editor)

The Covid-19 lockdowns caused people worldwide to be confined to their homes for longer and on a greater scale than ever before. This forced many unprecedented changes to the way we treat domestic space – as relationships shifted between the public and the private worlds, and homes were rapidly adapted to accommodate the additional roles of schools, offices, gyms, restaurants, making-spaces and more. Above all, our understanding of the home as a site to support and enhance the well-being of its inhabitants changed in a variety of novel ways.

Interiors in the Era of Covid is a collection of essays which explore the complex ways in which our inside spaces (contemporary and historical) have responded to Covid-19 and other human crises. With case studies ranging from US and Europe to Japan, China, Colombia, and Bangladesh, this is a truly global work which examines wide-ranging subjects from home-working and home technologies to the impact of lockdown on people’s identities, gender roles in the home, and the realities of domestic living with Covid in refugee camps.

Exploring the roles played by designers (both amateur and professional) in accommodating changing requirements and anticipating future ones – whether Covid or beyond – this book is a must-read for students and researchers in interior design, architecture, architectural and design history, and anyone interested in the home and the relationships between health and design.

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Authors:  Russell Tovey, Robert Diament

The actor Russell Tovey and the gallerist Robert Diament bring their much-loved Talk Art podcast to the printed page with a selection of their most popular conversations. Featuring 24 funny, moving and intriguing interviews with the likes of Sonia Boyce, Stephen Fry, Tracey Emin and Elton John, it gives a fascinating insight into how art is made, why we are drawn to it and the powerful impact it can have on our lives.

Find out more about Talk Art the Interviews →

Edited by Stefano Casciani

With offices in Milan and New York, Lissoni & Partners has a 30-year history in developing international projects in the fields of architecture, landscape, interior, product, and graphic design, as well as acting as art director for a range of prestigious companies.

Led by Piero Lissoni, the practice combines a range of expertise with a tailored approach that sets it apart, establishing a stylistic code and a visual identity that are clearly recognizable. The works are inspired by a sense of rigor and simplicity and are characterized by a regard to detail, coherence, and elegance with particular attention to proportion and harmony.

The book, edited by Stefano Casciani, is the first far-reaching monographic study on Lissoni, richly illustrated with photographs, floor plans, and sketches. It is structured by theme and includes Lissoni’s most important projects for industrial and residential architecture, as well as commercial and public spaces, museums displays, boats, graphic design, and product design.

Find out more about Piero Lissoni: Environments →

Author: Rick Rubin

The Creative Act is a beautiful and generous course of study that illuminates the path of the artist as a road we all can follow. It distills the wisdom gleaned from a lifetime’s work into a luminous reading experience that puts the power to create moments–and lifetimes–of exhilaration and transcendence within closer reach for all of us.

Many famed music producers are known for a particular sound that has its day. Rick Rubin is known for something else: creating a space where artists of all different genres and traditions can home in on who they really are and what they really offer. He has made a practice of helping people transcend their self-imposed expectations in order to reconnect with a state of innocence from which the surprising becomes inevitable. Over the years, as he has thought deeply about where creativity comes from and where it doesn’t, he has learned that being an artist isn’t about your specific output, it’s about your relationship to the world. Creativity has a place in everyone’s life, and everyone can make that place larger. In fact, there are few more important responsibilities.

Find out more about The Creative Act: A Way of Being →

Author: Temple Grandin

A quarter of a century after her memoir, Thinking in Pictures, forever changed how the world understood autism, Temple Grandin— “an anthropologist on Mars,” as Oliver Sacks dubbed her—transforms our awareness of the different ways our brains are wired. Do you have a keen sense of direction, a love of puzzles, the ability to assemble furniture without crying? You are likely a visual thinker.

With her genius for demystifying science, Grandin draws on cutting-edge research to take us inside visual thinking. Visual thinkers constitute a far greater proportion of the population than previously believed, she reveals, and a more varied one, from the photo-realistic “object visualizers” like Grandin herself, with their intuitive knack for design and problem solving, to the abstract, mathematically inclined “visual spatial” thinkers who excel in pattern recognition and systemic thinking. She also makes us understand how a world increasingly geared to the verbal tends to sideline visual thinkers, screening them out at school and passing over them in the workplace. Rather than continuing to waste their singular gifts, driving a collective loss in productivity and innovation, Grandin proposes new approaches to educating, parenting, employing, and collaborating with visual thinkers. In a highly competitive world, this important book helps us see, we need every mind on board.

Find out more about Visual Thinking →

Editor: Matt Richtel

How does creativity? Where does inspiration come from? What are the secrets of our most revered creators? How can we maximize our creative potential?

Creativity defines the human experience. It sparks achievement and innovation in art, science, technology, business, sports, and virtually every activity. It has fueled human progress on a global level, but it equally is the source of profound personal satisfaction for individual creators. And yet the origins of creative inspiration and the methods by which great creators tap into it have long been a source of mystery, spoken of in esoteric terms, our rational understanding shrouded in complex jargon. Until now.

Inspired is a book about the science of creativity, distilling an explosion of exciting new research from across the world. Through narrative storytelling, Richtel marries these findings with timeless insight from some of the world’s great creators as he deconstructs the authentic nature of creativity, its biological and evolutionary origins, its deep connection to religion and spirituality, the way it bubbles in each of us, urgent and essential, waiting to be tapped.

Many of the questions Richtel addresses are practical: What are the traits of successful creators? Under which conditions does creativity thrive? How can we move past creative blocks? The ultimate message of Inspired is that creativity is more accessible than many might imagine, as necessary, beautiful, and fulfilling as any essential part of human nature.

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Editor: 3dtotal Publishing

This jam-packed installment in the popular Sketching from the Imagination series explores the work of anime and manga artists from around the world, celebrating 50 talented creators with a passion for these vibrant cornerstones of Japanese pop culture.

Discover rarely seen sketches, drafts, and works-in-progress by hand-picked traditional and digital artists from creative industries around the globe. From kawaii characters to futuristic robots, from magical knights to dystopian cyberpunks, this captivating volume gathers hundreds of inspiring images that will delight any enthusiast of anime and manga.

Find out more about Sketching from the Imagination →

Author: Ruth Lang

Construction, which accounts for over a third of global carbon emissions, is an obvious target for improvement. Neatly positioned within this is the issue of extending the lifespan of existing buildings which have, on the face of it, outlived their immediate usefulness.

How can we build a sustainable future in a time of climate change and dwindling resources? As our spatial needs begin to evolve more rapidly, architects are exploring ingenious ways in which to reuse and recycle existing buildings; resulting in a stunning transformation of our existing urban fabric.

Building for Change collects the strategies of reuse together, demonstrating their power for change through groundbreaking projects from some of the world’s leading architects. From waste repurposed as construction materials, to buildings reworked with canny spatial interventions, and modular structures designed to be dismantled, discover how the architecture of creative reuse is helping us build a better tomorrow.

Find out more about Building for Change →