Whether freshly released or cherished classics, the titles in our reading list look both back and forwards. Some explore long-gone eras, through the fashions of the 19th century or major changes in furniture design over the decades, as simple items such as chairs find ever-evolving form. Others look at the connection between artists and where inspiration is found, while elsewhere the patterns of the past are broken, and a decolonial, limitless world of design for the future is imagined.
Chairs are one of the most ubiquitous pieces of furniture, yet there are endless possibilities for their design. Phaidon's editors choose 500, exploring how limited practical parameters open a range of creative possibilities. Included are Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's cold-bent tubular steel MR10 design from 1927, and the quintessentially American homemade Adirondack design, imagined by Thomas Lee and patented by Harry Bunnell in 1905. Not just a study in chair design, the book highlights wider style and tastes that have evolved through the decades, from the utilitarian to the surreal.
Aspen is known for its views across the Rocky Mountains and luxury ski resorts. In Private Aspen, writer Helen Thompson and photographer David Marlow offer a lesser-seen side of the city, taking readers inside 18 modernist houses. Many are created using natural materials that connect with their surroundings, such as locally sourced stone and reclaimed wood. There is also an extensive use of glass, with broad windows taking the place of external walls and offering sprawling views of the landscape. Interviews are featured with homeowners and designers.
Design Struggles challenges accepted modes of westernised design, which perpetuate or reinforce social hierarchies and environmental issues. With texts by Claudia Mareis and Nina Paim, illustrations by Lotte Lara Schröder and contributions from a host of creatives in the field, the book offers radical ways of approaching design, considering decolonial and queer-feminist means of self-critique. It puts forth the possibility of design as inherently unfinished and unbounded, drawing on examples from history, activism and sociology.
The first half of the 19th century has captured the contemporary imagination, thanks in some part to gothic horror blockbusters Nosferatu and Frankenstein. Susan L. Siegfried’s The New Taste deep dives into the legacy of dandyism and women’s growing role as valued new consumers of ostentatious fashion. The book explores how fashion met with art and new technology, with mass print production available and a voracious appetite for novelty. It also considers the impact of western colonialism, and the socioeconomic changes of the time.
Andrew Durbin delves into the creative and emotional connection between Peter Hujar and Paul Thek. The photographer and artist met in 1956, finding rich threads between their work. Durbin charts their initial Miami meeting, through friendship and romance, to an ultimate falling out in the mid 70s. Both created iconic works in this time, from Thek’s hyperrealistic lumps of wax-made meat to Hujar’s inky erotic portraits. The book explores how they influenced one another, and the impact of their friendship circle, which included Susan Sontag and Andy Warhol.
Enzo Ferrari was a design visionary. In Tribute to Ferrari, Fondation Cartier looks back on a major exhibition from 1987 that brought his work ambitiously to life, including attaching his pioneering car designs to large parachutes. Overseen by journalist Philippe Séclier, the book brings together archival photographs, sketches and documents from planning and exhibiting phases. It charts Enzo Ferrari’s evolution from racing driver to head of a major design empire, which still sends shock waves through the automobile world.