Thames & Hudson

An immersion into the vibrant world of Harry Gruyaert's New York. For over fifty years, Harry Gruyaert has wandered New York City's streets, capturing its dazzling contrasts - from towering skylines and neon-lit diners to multicultural neighbourhoods and fleeting street scenes. Designed as a large-format visual album, this book presents each photograph across a double-page spread, evoking the rhythm and energy of a cinematic storyboard. Accompanying this striking visual journey are fictional vignettes by acclaimed filmmaker Cédric Klapisch, blurring the lines between reality and imagination. A city of endless spectacle, New York becomes a global stage in Gruyaert's hands - alive with drama, diversity and colour.

A collection of essays that opens up new connections between Francis Bacon's art and the ideas of key thinkers. Francis Bacon is undoubtedly one of the most important artists of the twentieth century. In his paintings, Bacon radically disfigures his subjects, making them all but unrecognizable. This is no mere stylistic quirk, but the expression of a deeply held aesthetic vision. For Bacon, the essence of a subject can only be captured in the distorted recording of its appearance. His disfigurations are therefore, as he himself says, attempts to bring back the intensity of reality, to paint images that are 'truer than the literal truth'. In this groundbreaking collection of essays, some of today's leading philosophers and psychoanalytic theorists go to work on Bacon. They do to the artist what the artist does to his own figures: they disfigure and distort him, twisting and turning him into something new and previously unseen. This strategy of disfiguration blasts Bacon out of his traditional contexts, opening up new connections between his art and the ideas of key thinkers, including Kant, Marx, Nietzsche, Baudelaire, Freud, Canguilhem, Genet, Lacan, Adorno and Althusser. The results are revelatory, allowing us to transform our understanding not only of Bacon but also of modernism itself.

Delightfully nostalgic and surreal images to cut out and add to any collage, journal or artwork. Celebrated collage artist Maria Rivans has brought joy to paper crafts worldwide. Now, in the fifth title in the bestselling Cut Up This Book series, she invites us to create our own extraordinary places. Celebrating exotic locations – from ocean depths to lunar craters – this collection of stunning images and fabulous backgrounds is ready for you to cut out and stick as you please. Includes: • Over 800 surreal images celebrating travel, imagination, and discovery. • A selection of extraordinary backgrounds. • A collage masterclass from Maria, plus an inspiring finished collage for each destination. • Step-by-step tutorials and new techniques to spark creative confidence. • Images perfect for collage artists, crafters, and journalers looking for screen-free fun. Also available: Cut Up This Book and Create Your Own Wonderland Cut Up This Book and Create Your Own Underworld Four Seasons Collage Kit Cut Up This Book: Christmas Collage Kit

The first comprehensive overview of Ralph Lauren’s womenswear collections, from their 1972 debut to today, presented through original catwalk photography. With 2.5 million copies in print, each cloth-bound volume in the official and authorized Catwalk series is produced in close collaboration with the world's top fashion houses. These treasure troves of inspiration are must-have references for all fashion fans and professionals. Ralph Lauren debuted his first women's runway collection for Fall 1972 with a show that made his mark instantly, highlighting his exquisite tailoring and uncanny ability to mix opposites elegantly. Taking inspiration from New England’s rusticity, the West’s natural beauty and Hollywood’s glamour, Lauren's designs are a gold-standard for timeless American style with panache. This book celebrates more than 50 years of Lauren's creations, which have garnered many awards, made him a much-loved global brand and influenced the way women dress all over the world. Ralph Lauren famously launched his menswear business in 1967 with an audacious tie collection, taken up by Bloomingdale’s, from which his Polo brand quickly developed. This became, and has remained ever since, a benchmark for polished tailoring with rugged utility. With his dual collections of 1972, Lauren began his rise in the world of women’s fashion; fourteen years later he opened his first Paris store on Place de la Madeleine, an affirmation of his ranking with the world’s most famed couturiers. His consistent desire to create ‘a way of dressing that redefines the meaning of timelessness’ has made his label a by-word for luxury and class – as one critic said, Ralph Lauren ‘made it possible to use the words slinky and tweed in the same sentence without risking ridicule’. Complete with an introduction, designer biography and collection texts by Bridget Foley, this book offers a unique opportunity to explore the work of a great American couturier and creator of one of the world’s most celebrated fashion houses.

An essential overview of great kingdoms in African history and their legacies, written by world-leading experts. From the ancient Nile Valley to the savannas of medieval West Africa, the highlands of Ethiopia and on to the forests, lakes and grasslands to the south, African civilizations have given rise to some of the world's most impressive kingdoms. Yet Africa's history is often little known beyond the devastation wrought by the slave trade and European colonial rule. In this groundbreaking book, nine leading historians of Africa take a fresh look at these great kingdoms and empires over five thousand years of recorded history. How was kingship forged in Africa and how did it operate? Was dynastic power maintained by consent or by coercion? Did kings - and queens - display and project that power for all to see, or did they hide it away, as beneath the fringed crowns that concealed the faces of sacred Yoruba rulers? In what ways have African peoples themselves recorded, celebrated and critiqued the deeds of their kings? Great Kingdoms of Africa explores some of the most important questions in the continent's deep past.

The first in a new series that takes readers behind the scenes to discover exactly how an airport works. Airports plunges readers into the busy and complex world of an international airport to discover exactly how it works. Starting with the urgent and sometimes tricky-to-answer questions a child might ask – Why can't I ride on the bag carousel? Can a body scanner see me naked? Do suitcases get mixed up? Can you take snakes on a plane? – this book provides detailed and honest answers, to both entertain and ease the stresses and anxieties of first-time airport visitors. With entertaining and hyper-detailed illustrations by Maxim Usik, this book presents airports as they've never been seen before: gateways to adventure as fascinating to explore and visually intriguing as the locations the planes jet off to! And equally as interesting to the adult reader as it is to the child! Marking the first in a new series that will also explore TV Studios and Hospitals, amongst other locations, this fun and entertaining non-fiction book will demand repeat readings and serve as a brilliant reference book for schools and libraries as well.

The sixth edition in Monocle's best-selling travel handbook series, with everything you need to plan a short trip, or a longer stay, in Thailand. From bustling markets to the renowned art galleries and contemporary architecture of Bangkok, and beyond to beaches, rainforests and national parks, this handbook introduces Monocle's favourite places to stay, eat, shop and visit across Thailand. Discover talented ceramicists and bamboo artists as well as skilled bespoke tailors, cool bars and the best luxury pitstops. Find out about the traditional street food vendors creating delicious dishes using local ingredients, as well as contemporary artisans creating great jewelry, homeware and wellness products. For those looking to spend more time in Thailand, the book also profiles the towns, islands and provinces where you could make a home, the architects and designers to commission, and interior design inspiration for your new apartment or tropical beach villa. Whether putting together an itinerary for a summer getaway, a city escape or an even longer stay, Thailand: The Monocle Handbook makes the perfect companion.

How we search for meaning in our futures, as revealed by the divine, occult or supernatural, from ancient prophets to the end of days. What will happen to us next? From the earliest beginnings of human civilization, people have searched for signs, patterns and clues to address the last unanswerable question. Looking into the future has obsessed human beings since written records began. As soon as communities could conceive of higher powers, they tried to look into the future. Prophets and priests have delivered divine messages. Shamans and seers have channelled spirits and interpreted visions, portents, revelations and omens. This unique and richly illustrated volume reveals the long history of the future in every human society - from Egyptian oracles, Roman augurs and Aztec omens, to Japanese divination and the active magic of Norse seers. It traces the parallels in different traditions and cultures, exploring the signs and images found in antique documents, rare books, imaginative projections and divinatory paraphernalia. The nine chapters explore extraordinary oracles from ancient Greece and western Africa, to Mesopotamia and the mountains of Tibet; we discover omens, portents and auspicious signs in indigenous societies in Asia; meet the Zoroastrian priests of Iran and astrologers of China; share dreams and visions from Australia to North America; and finally reckon with the many predictions of the end of the world, from ancient days to our present moment.

Cut Out presents the previously untold relationship between photography, feminist art and collage, from the 19th century to the present day. Female artists have long employed collage to reflect the ways in which identity is often constructed from conflicting, contrasting and contradictory parts. Cut Out explores the relationship between photography and feminist collage, foregrounding the use of femmage - a radical reclaiming of craft traditionally associated with women - as a resilient method within feminist and political art. Cut Out presents an expanded definition of collage and cutting techniques to encompass photomontage, assemblage and the photogram. Tracing a lineage from nineteenth-century makers to contemporary practitioners, we encounter Victorian album makers; Modernist, Surrealist and Dadaist innovators; and radical, second-wave feminist artists. Thematic sections include profiles written by expert contributors on key individuals, including Hannah Höch, Dora Maar and Lorna Simpson. Looking to the future as much as the past, Cut Out also reveals how the pioneering work of contemporary and digital artists continues to subvert dominant narratives and foster ever-expanding forms of photographic collage. At a moment when photography and its history are being actively contested and reappraised, Cut Out is a reminder of its political power.

An adorable introduction for very young children to the world of Impressionist painting. In what has to be the cutest introduction to Impressionism, Miffy discovers the work of iconic artists including Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot, Edgar Degas, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Mary Cassatt, among others. The book uses clever pairings of Dick Bruna's Miffy illustrations with iconic artworks to neatly captures the essence of each artwork. Combining a simple statement about each artist with questions that encourage children to look more closely at the artwork on the page, Miffy and the Impressionists is a warm welcome into the world of art for young children and their families.

A comprehensive overview of Antony Gormley's drawings from 1980 to the present, with insightful texts from the artist and major contributors. 'What is drawing?' the artist asks in the prologue to Drawing: Antony Gormley. 'What does it mean to draw?' This beautifully illustrated volume presents the first comprehensive overview of Antony Gormley's drawings from 1980 to the present day, offering an intimate and enlightening window into the artist's vision. Illustrating over 400 works, many of which have never been seen or published before, this major new publication traces Gormley's exploration of drawing as a vital form of thought and feeling. The artist's own reflections punctuate the book with deeply personal insights into his process, including ruminations on drawing's possibilities - 'the act of drawing is its own experimental field, a journey into the unarmed parts of our internal landscape' - and meditations on 'the intrinsic qualities of substances and liquids', from charcoal, mushroom ink and blood to the earth beneath our feet. Accompanying Gormley's writings are perceptive texts by Jeanette Winterson, Margaret Iversen, Daisy Hildyard, W.J.T. Mitchell and Merlin Sheldrake. Each contributor offers a unique perspective on Gormley's work and the wider meaning of drawing as an act of exploration and transformation. Drawing: Antony Gormley stands as both a personal and artistic journey. As Gormley himself reflects, 'Drawings have immediacy. In a good session, drawing can be like going for a rugged, physical adventure on a blustery day with changing conditions of light and rain. A day passed without drawing is a day lost.'

A concise, accessible and global overview of modern and contemporary queer art, co-written by notable curators in the field. Queer Art is a commanding compendium of LGBTQIA+ art that highlights its ongoing resilience from the 19th century to the present day. Spanning generations and geographies, Queer Art's carefully curated selection of practitioners paints a rich picture of LGBTQIA+ visual culture, underscoring the complexity of lived experience and cutting through the basic understanding of the subject that seeks to measure 'queerness' against overt homoeroticism and proven homosexuality. Queer art curators Mollie E. Barnes and Gemma Rolls-Bentley begin by exploring how resilience has shaped artistic expression, establishing the historical backdrop against which queer art has evolved. From liberation to intersectionality, reclamation to futurism, four thematic chapters unpack the key concerns of queer art as they relate to the work of artists such as Keith Haring, Bhupen Khakhar, Hélio Oiticica, Catherine Opie, Lotte Laserstein and Xiyadie. By exploring the notion of 'queer art' through the lens of both historical figures and contemporary practitioners, Queer Art adopts a dual focus, traversing the past and present to reflect on covert histories whilst imagining radical futures in which art not only reflects but shapes social norms.

Earth Works: Houses by Byoung Cho offers a unique glimpse into the residential buildings of one of Korea's most influential architects. This visually stunning monograph combines photography, plans, drawings, paintings and models to provide an exclusive overview of this rarely published aspect of Byoung's work. Focused entirely around fifteen private and rarely seen residences, the book takes as its starting point some of his earliest projects - Concrete Box House (2004) and Earth House (2009) - which explore the emotional impact of place through low-intervention and minimalist rural structures. At its core, this book aims to intertwine the theoretical underpinnings of land architecture with practical project descriptions, creating a holistic narrative that bridges the conceptual and the concrete. It also explores Korean architecture's enduring concern with establishing a relationship with the land, something which is rooted in the country's distinct terrain and cultural foundations. A number of insightful texts by Byoung complement this elegant and poetic survey, exploring his architectural influences alongside the ideas of experience, perception and the Korean concepts of mak and bium (imperfection and emptiness).

AESME STUDIO offer a masterclass in designing naturalistic floral arrangements with a sense of place in a range of stunning settings, from the English countryside to Europe and beyond. Sisters Ally and Jess are the founders of leading London flower company AESME STUDIO and have created a unique naturalistic style that connects floral design back to nature. This, their first book, takes the reader on a journey through the seasons. The sisters visit twelve unique locations throughout the UK, Europe and beyond to gather flowers and create seasonal floral arrangements with a sense of place. Naturalistic floral design is about using local, wild and seasonal flowers to create beautiful, sustainable arrangements that are in harmony with their location. From English country houses to a garden in Provence, Jess and Alex have spent a year documenting their travels to provide a unique guide to how to create stunning – and often inexpensive – arrangements wherever you are. Each chapter tells the story of the sisters' discoveries along the way and explores a location through its regional flowers and scenery, offering plenty of ideas for styling flowers along with arrangement 'recipes' that show how each was designed and created. Whether you are interested in naturalistic floral design or just looking for tips and ideas to style flowers more sustainably at home, this journey through a year of floral arrangements will be a rich source of inspiration for anyone looking to decorate with seasonal flowers.

An accessible and hugely popular history of art explained through many of the world's most famous masterpieces. Written by an international team of artists, art historians and curators, this absorbing and beautiful book gives readers unparalleled insights into the world's most iconic artworks. Art: The Whole Story traces the development of art period by period, with the illustrated text covering every genre, from painting and sculpture to conceptual art and performance art. Cultural timelines are there too, to help to the reader with historical context. Masterpieces that epitomize each period or movement are highlighted and analysed in detail. Everything from use of colour and visual metaphors to technical innovations is explained, enabling you to interpret the meanings of world-famous masterpieces - Mughal miniatures; Japanese prints in the 19th century; the colour theories behind Seurat's remarkable La Grande Jatte; and why Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon was so shocking in its day.

A beautifully produced cookbook featuring eighty recipes inspired by traditional Korean cuisine, alongside illuminating essays on the country’s culinary history. The Art of Korean Cooking is a definitive introduction to Korean cuisine and a beautifully crafted cookbook. It compiles more than eighty recipes, each meticulously researched and tested by Onjium – a cultural research institute and Michelin-starred restaurant in Seoul dedicated to reviving and modernizing Korean culinary traditions, preserving past tastes for future generations. The book includes a series of cultural essays, interspersed throughout, grounding readers in Korean cuisine and culture. Taken together, they trace the history of its flavours and ingredients back thousands of years through the Joseon and Goryeo dynasties. A particular emphasis is placed on Royal Court Cuisine, accompanied by numerous modern spins on dishes once served at Joseon-era royal banquets. Organized by season, the recipes range from familiar dishes like bibimbap with spring vegetables or seafood hot pot to the lesser known: azalea rice cakes, chestnut porridge, beotgul (oyster) salad, or stir-fried ueong (burdock root) with sweet-potato noodles. Each recipe is illustrated by a stunning photograph of its end dish, while artfully designed double pages depict raw ingredients and scenes from nature during the changing seasons. Bookending the recipes are a series of illustrated subsections covering essential drinks, garnishes, and condiments. These include alcoholic beverages; bugak (dried deep-fried vegetables or seaweed); jangajji (pickles); tea; and fruit and vegetable marmalades.