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New Titles in Design & Gardening 14 September 2021
Anne Geene Book Of Plants

Isbn 9789069060538
Publisher De Hef
Idea code 21390
€ 59.50

The ‘Book of Plants’ is a eulogy on plants in all their appearances, a continuation of an oeuvre that is an expression of the remarkable beauty of the unremarkable. Anne Geene’s quest for specimens with various types of appearances and deformations gives the book a teratological dimension. In her work, the photograph itself is rarely the focus. Taken out of context, the pictures are often no more than a registration of an inconspicuous fact. This means that her art is about collection, about the image in relation to other images and the ability to creates new ones by merging and arranging them. Enjoy an expedition through all of the botanical micro- and macrocosms.

560 p, ills colour & bw, 17 x 21 cm, hb, Dutch/English

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On the Necessity of Gardening - An ABC of Art, Botany and Cultivation

Isbn 9789493246003
Publisher Valiz
Idea code 21470
€ 29.90

'On the Necessity of Gardening' tells the story of the garden as a rich source of inspiration. Over the centuries artists, writers, poets, and thinkers have each described, depicted, and designed the garden in different ways. In medieval art, the garden was a reflection of paradise, a place of harmony and fertility, shielded from worldly problems. In the eighteenth century this image tilted: the garden became a symbol of worldly powers and politics. The Anthropocene is forcing us to radically rethink the role we have given nature in recent decades. Through essays and an extensive abecedarium this book reflects on the garden as a metaphor for society.

240 p, ills colour & bw, 24 x 32 cm, pb, English

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Lous Martens - Animal Books For Jaap Zeno Anna Julian Luca (Reprint/ New Cover)

Isbn 9789492811998
Publisher Roma Publications
Idea code 21468
€ 35.00

Lous Martens has five grandchildren – Jaap, Zeno, Anna, Julian, and Luca – and has begun making an animal scrapbook for each newcomer to the family. Although it is seventeen years since the first, Jaap, was born, none of the five books are finished yet. Consisting of loosely pasted pictures of animals that were clipped from newspapers and magazines about art, literature, and science, plus stamps and photographs from advertising brochures, the books are enjoyable for their small, ever-evolving changes as new material is added. Interestingly, the books were never intended to be published, but are now grouped into one big volume, an embodiment of familial love and dedication.

416 p, ills colour & bw, 17 x 24 cm, pb, Dutch/English

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MacGuffin 10: The Bottle

Isbn 24058203
Publisher Macguffin
Idea code 21405
€ 22.35

The magazine celebrates its tenth jubilee by uncorking a miscellany of bottles that capture the zeitgeist. The menu for this festive issue includes a parade of down-market perfumes, messages squeezed into bottles, perfect Molotov cocktail recipes, celebrity fridges and their curated contents, the curious colours of centuries-old domestic bottles, the racism rife in the wine business, the salvation sought at AA sessions, and the many marvels that await in the minibar. Featuring Kandace Siobhan Walker, Jacy Topps, José Quintanar, Studio Qiu Yang, AtelierNL, El Ultimo Grito, Emily King, Mirka Laura Severa, Johannes Reponen, and more, plus an anthology of graphic design talent.

224 p, ills colour & bw, 21 x 28 cm, pb, English

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Karl Nawrot - Mind Walks (Reprint)

Isbn 9783906213231
Publisher Rollo Press
Idea code 18673
€ 30.00

Karl Nawrot is a graphic designer whose work has a pronounced architectural sensibility. His oeuvre includes typography, illustration, and abstract graphic compositions, and he uses techniques usually associated with architectural processes to create letterforms drawn using various media. ‘Mind Walks’ compiles more than 900 images of Nawrot’s selected works from between 2004 and 2017. Edited and designed by him, and with a text by James Langdon, the book is a fascinating compendium of plastic expression through various materials. Whether formed in pencil, ink, foam board, card stock, or metal, his creations are the typographic equivalent of an architectural model.

496 p, ills bw, 17 x 24 cm, pb, French/English

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Caps Lock - How Capitalism Took Hold of Graphic Design, and how to Escape from it

Isbn 9789492095817
Publisher Valiz
Idea code 21440
€ 22.50

In this book, Dutch graphic designer Ruben Pater uses clear language and visual examples to show how graphic design and capitalism are inextricably linked. Capitalism could not exist without the myriad banknotes, documents, infographics, interfaces, branding, and advertisements created by graphic designers. Even anti-consumerist strategies such as social and speculative design are appropriated to serve economic growth. Design, it seems, is locked in a cycle of exploitation and extraction, furthering global inequality and environmental collapse. Featured are six radical design cooperatives that resist capitalist thinking, hoping to inspire a more socially aware practice.

432 p, ills colour & bw, 11 x 18 cm, pb, English

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The Book Of Emotions

Isbn 9780995518179
Publisher Redstone Press
Idea code 21441
€ 27.25

Our relationship with the world and each other is infused with feeling. By the same token, our emotional lives are fascinatingly complex. Why we feel the way we do, or why our emotions sometimes tell us the opposite of what reason might recommend, is not always clear. This book offers avenues to perhaps learn to know yourself better. Bringing together psychologists, artists, historians, and poets, it unpacks your emotional baggage by finding play in everyday feelings and pleasure where you least expect it. Through games, questionnaires, and psychological quizzes, you can explore what the history, science, and philosophy of emotions demonstrates about why you feel.

176 p, ills colour & bw, 19 x 26 cm, pb, English

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Kris Sowersby: The Art Of Letters

Isbn 9780648596349
Publisher Formist Editions
Idea code 21451
€ 90.00

Considered one of the leaders in his field, typeface designer Kris Sowersby founded Klim Type Foundry in 2005. Peruse a visual feast of letterforms in an examination of Sowersby’s practice where the characters and letters stand alone, as independent works of art. Explore their interconnections, individual function and form, and celebrate the absurd beauty involved in creating multiple expressions of predetermined alphabets through nuance and theory, removed from the context of language systems. The publication features over 750 large character illustrations selected from Sowersby’s award-winning typefaces, plus an essay by graphic designer and educator Paul McNeil.

800 p, ills colour & bw, 15 x 20 cm, pb, English

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Raghda Moataz - Absolute Egypt

Isbn 9789490939199
Publisher Khatt
Idea code 21464
€ 47.50

Get ready for a whirlwind tour through local Egyptian streets, in which the everyday designs that are part of the country’s overwhelming but beautiful contemporary visual culture are highlighted. Featured are basic design elements such as patterns, colours, and symbols, public designs including street lettering, graffiti artworks and signs, and printed matter like books, stamps, and newspapers. Collecting and celebrating Egypt’s graphically rich environment, the book is a testimony to its vitality. Writer and graphic designer Raghda Moataz developed ‘Absolute Egypt’ for her bachelor thesis at the Faculty of Applied Sciences and Arts at the German University in Cairo.

240 p, ills colour & bw, 19 x 20 cm, pb, Arabic/English

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The Papyrus Gang

Isbn 9789490939243
Publisher Khatt Books
Idea code 21459
€ 15.00

Have you ever wondered why papyrus paper was produced only in Egypt? Or how and why this ancient material is still being produced today, while the plant itself became extinct there many centuries ago? Part graphic novel, part five-act play, ‘The Papyrus Gang’ takes readers on an adventure to uncover the secrets of Egyptian papyrus today. The narrative is based on author Alba Elbahrawy’s personal search for answers and describes her journey based on real-life anecdotes populated with intriguing characters. Each of the chapters is illustrated in a different style by an Egyptian illustrator or comic book artist: Mostafa Youssef, Hani Mahfouz, Migo & Makhlouf, Tawfig, and Andeel.

144 p, ills colour & bw, 17 x 24 cm, pb, Arabic/English

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Logo Land - A Compilation Of All The Municipality Logos Of The Netherlands

Isbn 9789462264106
Publisher Lecturis
Idea code 21444
€ 27.50

The Netherlands consists of 352 municipalities, each with its own history, character, habits, and even dialects. Sometime after Amit Biswas moved to the Netherlands in 2011, he became curious about the meaning behind the logo of Eindhoven, where he lived. This soon became a full-on investigation of all the municipality logos of the Netherlands. This book tells about the origin and meaning of each logo and explains the shapes, forms, and colours that have been carefully designed and visualised in each one. For the first time in Dutch history, ‘Logo Land’ compiles all the logos that many take for granted and illuminates their fascinating stories in a superbly researched effort.

214 p, ills colour & bw, 20 x 28 cm, hb, English

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Thom Pfister - Swiss Graphic Designs - Encounters

Isbn 9783906822419
Publisher Sturm & Drang
Idea code 21421
€ 65.85

Thom Pfister’s extensive oeuvre – encoded with a flair for the visually and intellectually uncommon, for reduction, lightness, and elegance – straddles the interface between art and design. He is a versatile visual creative whose works are the product of honesty and a concentrated narrative force. At times direct and forceful, at others subtle and delicate, but always with a nuanced story that itself seeks a correspondingly multi-layered interpretation. With Pfister, the imperfect is sought out, staged, and becomes the stylistic device. This volume presents a visually arresting compendium of work, in which the layering and overlaying of diverse visual elements is the dominant aesthetic.

496 p, ills colour, 24 x 33 cm, pb, English

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Tokolo Patterns 2001-2021

Isbn 9784568105278
Publisher Bss Bijutsu
Idea code 21422
€ 34.90

Asao Tokolo grew up studying architecture, but today engages in a practice that traverses boundaries between the various fields of art, architecture, and design. In particular, he devotes much of his time to creating emblems and patterns based on simple geometry that can be reproduced using a compass and ruler. Much of this body of work can be found in this book, which gathers two decades of Tokolo’s prolific creative practice. Applying basic rules and structures, he has generated overwhelming diversity and variation, from simple to highly complex, in an extension of the most fundamental and ancient human expression, the urge to depict repetition through patterns.

320 p, ills colour, 15 x 15 cm, hb, Japanese/English

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Expansive Bodies: Contesting Design At The Nieuwe Instituut

Isbn 9789462086654
Publisher Nai010 Publishers
Idea code 21438
€ 41.75

Design occupies an increasingly expansive field these days. No longer just about solutions and innovation, design is often the root cause of problems and conflict. For museums that engage in this world, this poses an existential challenge wherein how design acts, to what end, and for whom needs to be closely examined. ‘Expansive Bodies’ is an account of the past eight years at Het Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam, in its own attempts to come to terms with this shifting ground. The book comprises an oral history of the institute, an illustrated account of its exhibition history, and sixteen essays, each exploring different ideas about cultural practice and the ways design operates today.

310 p, ills colour & bw, 23 x 32 cm, pb, English

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Forager Things (Instructions For) 9 Compositional Products & 16 Experi Mental Mails

Isbn 9789811493041
Publisher Temporary Press
Idea code 21393
€ 21.00

Edited by Hans Tan, ‘Forager Things’ is inspired by the apocalyptic scenarios we see in films, where survivors assemble essential products by foraging for things around them, using parts and objects in unexpected ways. The book challenges us to consider a possible future where society must relearn how to build and connect through analogue means. The “compositional products” encourage us to recondition our perspectives on mass-produced items, while the “experiential mails”, designed by students from the National University of Singapore, shift the significance of a letter being a message communicated through words or images to a constructed, purposeful experience.

116 p, ills colour & bw, 14 x 19 cm, pb, English

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R For Repair: 10 Repaired Objects & 9 Repair Kits

Isbn 9789811495830
Publisher Temporary Press
Idea code 21394
€ 18.95

Not too long ago, repair was the first response to a broken or worn-out item. But mass production has made it easier and cheaper to replace such things instead. Yet this kind of affordability comes at a price. The preservative desire that came with owning our possessions has given way to a covetous appetite for the new. Edited by Hans Tan, the ten repaired objects featured in ‘R for Repair’ offer a counterpoint to our modern consumerist culture, where repair is either deprecated or, ironically, deemed extravagant. Shifting the concept of repair away from restoration, it can be reimagined as an inspiring and fulfilling activity. Published with an exhibition at National Design Centre, Singapore.

78 p, ills colour & bw, 18 x 25 cm, pb, English

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Cardboard Lamps & Adequate Images (Building Instructions For 7 Lamps)

Isbn 9789811481673
Publisher Temporary Press
Idea code 21392
€ 8.50

Lai Yu Tong is a Singaporean artist who works primarily with images. His practice currently examines habits of consumption while living in a city. The carboard box, for instance, is a ubiquitous object in the city and the inspiration for this loop-stitched booklet of 40 pages. Within the booklet are photographs, “instructional” diagrams, and a short text by the artist. It is printed in seven “random” sequences of small, two-colour photographs that either overlay or accompany the main images, which are printed in greyscale or black. The accompanying text offers a rather demoralising outlook on global pandemic, the climate crisis, and choosing to be an artist.

40 p, ills colour & bw, 13 x 18 cm, pb, English

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I Am Gonzo. My Dirty Italian Zines Fuck Serious Scientific Books

Isbn 9788897753582
Publisher Viaindustriae
Idea code 21377
€ 25.50

A porn addict amateur who collects dirty Italian comics in an “animalistic” way, Gonzo applies a conservative technique whereby he hides these questionably viewable images within scientific libraries. This book addresses a widespread form of collecting that avoids the subject of the “arty” comic strip and instead dives headlong into obscene material and the viewer’s experience of it. This mega-collection of pornographic Italian comics faithfully presents the genre from its sensual, sexual-phobic beginnings to its porno-violent shift, between the years 1985 and 2000. Voyeuristic and chock-full of thematic variants, from transgenderism and homoeroticism to fairy tale, zombie, and cyber porn.

224 p, ills colour & bw, 13 x 19 cm, pb, Italian/English

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The History Of Art According To Instagram

Isbn 9788870385731
Publisher Centro Di
Idea code 21455
€ 38.80

Daniele Rossi has compiled an art book featuring a collection of over 700 pictures taken in museums all over the world and posted on the popular social media platform. Aided by geolocation and Instagram tags, she gathered thousands of posts and rearranged them in a sequence that aspires to be a rendering of the history of art in the age of social media. From the book’s pages emerges the vastness of a virtual museum that grows instantaneously, one selfie at a time, with artworks and museum visitors from around the globe. Rossi’s project reveals how the way in which we experience art has changed and highlights the similarities between different users with the same art piece.

224 p, ills colour, 21 x 21 cm, pb, English

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Grid Pad Number 1

Isbn
Publisher Formist Editions
Idea code 21432
€ 27.35

Presenting playful gridded postcards for creating, drawing, and thinking, ‘Grid Pad’ offers creative freedom while giving your ideas structure; grids with infinite possibilities, whether for art, planning, doodling, or designing. The notebook consists of 96 tear-off cards and six different geometric grids, and is perfect for pens, pencils, or paint. See where your brain takes you by creating everything from greeting cards and abstract games, to geometrical patterns and 3D drawings. The concept came from designer Mark Gowing’s frequent use of grid systems in his creative process. But the selection of readily available notepads with multiple grids was limited, so ‘Grid Pad’ was born.

96 p, ills bw, 11 x 16 cm, pb, English

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Two Thousand Twenty Too Diary

Isbn
Publisher Joliat
Idea code 21361
€ 29.10

In 2022 too... we need to keep going, adapt our lifestyle, slow down, and consume more responsibly. Each week of this weekly planner discloses a miscellanea of tips, facts, recipes, quotes, exercises, charts, information and testimonial depicted in a playful way to inspire you to live a more sustainable life. This year’s edition includes additional blank pages that provide more space for your notes. It also includes a monthly planner, a project plan- ner, a lot of useful information about holidays, world maps, conversion tables, a culinary calendar, hints about celestial and green events, and observation charts. Please note, last copies: only blue available.

192 p, ills bw, 12 x 19 cm, pb, English

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