Books

Bubbletecture

19 March 2019 in Books Comment

Following in the footsteps of Nanotecture, Mobitecture, and Pet-tecture, a fascinating and fun guide to everything inflatable.

Although inflatable objects have been around for more than 200 years, architects, artists, and designers keep rediscovering this deceptively simple – often playful, and occasionally bizarre – technology. Bubbletecture brings together inflatables in every conceivable size, shape, and hue across the realms of architecture, design, art, and fashion. From inflatable dresses and hats to buildings employing cutting-edge technologies, from ingenious chairs, lights, bowls, and even egg cups to children’s toys and provocative art installations, Bubbletecture demonstrates that inflatable design is simply irresistible.

Format: Hardback
Size: 184 x 124 mm (7 1/4 x 4 7/8 in)
Pages: 288 pp
Illustrations: 250 illustrations
ISBN: 9780714877778

Phaidon

Pseudo — Pseudonym Publishing

19 March 2019 in Books Comment

Pseudo

Pseudo is a collection of interviews with Scandinavian designers, on the topic of concepts and rhetoric in today’s design scene. Revolving around themes such as ‘what differentiates an idea and a concept’ and the consequence of talking to much in abstract terms. Loose discussions shining a light on the current discourse of what we designers sell today, what’s our primary point of delivery – and where are we as an industry headed?

ISBN: 978-82-690810-0-8
155 x 210mm
226 pages
250 copies

Pseudonym Publishing

Polly Borland — Bunny

18 March 2019 in Books Comment

Polly Borland
Bunny

Hardback 100 pages
Published: Other Criteria
ISBN: 978-1-904212-23-2
Dimensions: 31 X 30 CM

Wrapped in a set of tights, the only way into this extremely rare book is to rip them off. This rare special edition book comes with a poem by Nick Cave, a short story by Will self and a limited edition print signed by the artist.

Strange and beguiling, ‘Bunny’ documents Polly Borland’s photographs of a real-life giant woman called Gwen. The book takes the viewer through an assemblage of images which explore femininity and deconstruct the idea of the Playboy bunny girl. In today’s world, peppered with cynicism and scepticism, ‘Bunny’ offers us a chance to believe again in fairytale horses, bunny rabbits, and giants.

To accompany the photographs, ‘Bunny’ also includes a seductive short poem by Nick Cave, and an eccentric modern fairytale by Will Self. Reminiscent of Lewis Carroll, these pieces reflect the delicate, bewitching narratives found in Borland’s images, where childlike innocence sits hand in paw with stark sexuality and the ethereal: “Well now, the bunny was a silly thing and not quite right. She had pink fur and her muzzle was sort of bulgy and cartoonish.”

Tom Ford

17 March 2019 in Books Comment

Tom Ford
by Tom Ford, Bridget Foley, Graydon Carter, Anna Wintour

Hardcover
414 pages
Publisher: Rizzoli

Tom Ford has become one of fashion’s great icons. In the past decade, he transformed Gucci from a moribund accessories label into one of the sexiest fashion brands in the world. His designs have increased sales at Gucci tenfold and have helped build the Gucci brand into the luxury goods conglomerate that it is today. Ford brought a hard-edged style synonymous with 21st century glamour to his clothes, and Hollywood sat up and took note. This book is a complete catalogue of Ford’s design work for both Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent from 1994 to 2004.

It chronicles not only Ford’s clothing and accessories designs for both houses, but also explores Ford’s grand vision for the complete design of a brand, including architecture, store design, and advertising. Tom Ford features more than 200 photographs by Richard Avedon, Mario Testino, Steven Meisel, Helmut Newton, Herb Ritts, Terry Richardson, Craig McDean, Todd Eberle, and numerous other photographers including many previously unpublished images. Published to coincide with his departure from Gucci, this book has been created with Ford’s full cooperation and every page reflects his exceptional taste. It is Ford’s testament to a career of singular moments reinventing the boundaries of style and sensuality in clothing.

Tom Ford on Amazon

I Know How Furiously Your Heart Is Beating — Alec Soth

17 March 2019 in Books Comment

I Know How Furiously Your Heart Is Beating
Alec Soth

Embossed linen hardback
84 pages, 30 x 33.5cm
Interview with Alec Soth by Hanya Yanagihara

Publication date: March 2019
North American orders will ship from 18/03/19.

ISBN: 978-1-912339-31-0

Coincides with four solo exhibitions in New York, San Francisco, Minneapolis, and Berlin.

Taking its name from a line in the Wallace Stevens’ poem “The Gray Room,” Alec Soth’s latest book is a lyrical exploration of the limitations of photographic representation. While these large-format color photographs are made all over the world, they aren’t about any particular place or population. By a process of intimate and often extended engagement, Soth’s portraits and images of his subject’s surroundings involve an enquiry into the extent to which a photographic likeness can depict more than the outer surface of an individual, and perhaps even plumb the depths of something unknowable about both the sitter and the photographer.

“After the publication of my last book about social life in America, Songbook, and a retrospective of my four, large scale American projects, Gathered Leaves, I went through a long period of rethinking my creative process. For over a year I stopped traveling and photographing people. I barely took any pictures at all.

When I returned to photography, I wanted to strip the medium down to its primary elements. Rather than trying to make some sort of epic narrative about America, I wanted to simply spend time looking at other people and, hopefully, briefly glimpse their interior life.

In order to try and access these lives, I made all of the photographs in interior spaces. While these rooms often exist in far-flung places, it’s only to emphasize that these pictures aren’t about any place in particular. Whether a picture is made in Odessa or Minneapolis, my goal was the same: to simply spend time in the presence of another beating heart.” – Alec Soth

Mack Books

The Island Position — John Lehr

3 March 2019 in Books Comment

The Island Position
John Lehr

Swiss bound paperback with flaps
22 x 29 cm
Includes story by George Saunders
Publication date: March 2019
ISBN: 978-1-912339-32-7

The “Island Position” is an advertising term that describes the premium position of an advertisement surrounded solely by editorial content. In The Island Position, John Lehr explores the facades of American commercial spaces that are threatened by the emergence of e-commerce. In a rush to remain relevant, storeowners emblazon their windows and walls with anything that will grab attention: tessellations of quick-fading ads, floor-to-ceiling decals of fanned money or flowing hair, haphazard product displays, and desperate, hand-scrawled invitations. They repaint, renovate, rebrand, and rearrange, gestures which point to the desires and anxieties of people who are being left behind as our thumbs lead us into the new economy. The work presents a turning point in our cultural landscape: the transition from a physical culture to a virtual one.

Masquerading as a typology of storefronts, the surfaces in The Island Position embody something unseen: the people who constructed them. The signage is not simply an appeal to consumption, but a typography of emotion: vulnerability, ingenuity, distress, and hope—the language of capitalism as a form of public address. Lehr is not interested in what is for sale. He is interested in what is at stake.

Mack Books