Bountiful books: leaf through the top ten new titles

Lettering Large: Art and Design of Monumental Typography
By Steven Heller and Mirko Ilic

Big type used to be known as ‘Supergraphics,’ a high visibility offshoot from late period modernism when the building started evolving into a billboard. But where the Supergraphic genre was brash and commercial, the more artistic expressions of big scale type design are rarely chronicled. Heller and Ilic’s new monograph, Lettering Large, corrects the balance, assembling a huge overview of installations, inscriptions and artworks that use the power of the printed work to make their point. Whether letters are cut, carved, painted or punched, the book looks at ways in which typography and the built (and natural) environments have come together, with new works supported by plenty of historical precedents.

Published by The Monacelli Press, $45

Writer: Jonathan Bell

The Artists' Colouring Book of ABCs
By Charlotte Colbert, Alix Janta and Lauren Jones

Twenty-six artists were inspired by something very elementary to encourage new audiences to embrace contemporary art: the alphabet. A new book incorporating letter-based works by artists including Tracy Emin, Yinka Shonibare, Grayson Perry and Alex Katz engages young readers in a way that transcends the basic ABCs. The original artworks were auctioned off this month at London's Serpentine Gallery to benefit the Kid's Company Charity.

Published by Humpty Dumpty Publishing, £15.99

Writer: Mariel Reed

After You Left / They Took it Apart (Demolished Paul Rudolph Houses)
By Chris Mottalini

Chris Mottalini’s photographic documentation of the work of Paul Rudolph has had a long life on the Internet. Ironically, this is the first physical publication of a set of imagery dealing with places and things that have long since disappeared. The fetish for photographing modern ruins makes for depressing viewing, and perhaps we should question quite why Rudolph’s oeuvre should be quite so susceptible to the wrecking ball. After all, he was an acclaimed architect of rare spatial originality, yet perhaps it was his innovation and experimental approach that made these demised designs simultaneously so fragile and suited only for a very specific owner.

Published by University of Chicago Press, $50

Writer: Jonathan Bell

Jane & Serge: A Family Album
By Andrew Birkin

Taking the form of a family photo album, Taschen's new tome captures the love affair between Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg through the lens of Jane's brother, Andrew. The series of previously unpublished images offers a voyeuristic insight into the couple’s early life together, and features intimate photographs of Kate Barry (Jane’s daughter from her first marriage, who prematurely passed away this month), and their daughter together, Charlotte. The book includes an introduction by Jane, a fold-out poster and five loose photo prints – completing Andrew's homage to the most public of romances.

Published by Taschen, £34.99

Writer: Katrina Israel

The Story of Design
By Charlotte and Peter Fiell

The AD890 Viking ship accompanying the introduction sets the tone. Charlotte and Peter Fiell’s illustrated tome is a history of design dating back to Palaeolithic times, whose rudimentary cutlery and arrowheads were precursors to tableware by Alessi and garden tools from Heal’s. Naturally, though, things get more interesting with the Industrial Revolution and prettier in the Modernist stage. All along, though, are highly readable anecdotes that get behind our everyday products and magnificent archival imagery that transports us to a simpler time.

Published by Goodman Fiell, £30

Writer: Ellen Himelfarb

Storytelling on Steroids: 10 stories that hijacked the pop cultural conversation
By John Weich

Regular Wallpaper* contributor John Weich knows a thing or two about the evolution of modern day marketing. Storytelling on Steroids is Weich’s take on ten strokes of marketing genius, all filtered through that most contemporary of devices, storytelling. Essentially a multi-platform way of getting a message into the mainstream, storytelling is about seeding stories so that your audience does the rest of the legwork. While obviously pitched at industry types, Storytelling on Steroids will give even the most ad-hardened civilians a great insight into how the modern world works.

Published by Bis Publishers, €19 euros

Writer: Jonathan Bell

TheInstaPaper #edit2
By Soon Is Now

The phenomenon of websites spawning books is now well-established, with creative work increasingly making the leap from pixel to paper. TheInstaPaper #edit2 differs from its peers in that it sources its content from Instagram, the site that can claim credit for a major chunk of the estimated three trillion photographs taken since the start of time. Drawing on the feeds of creative types from around the world, #edit2 gives these fleeting visual vignettes their own place in space and time. Just 1,000 copies will be printed.

Published by Soon Is Now, £27

Writer: Jonathan Bell

Ercol: Furniture in the Making
By Lesley Jackson

The race to snatch up every last piece of unwanted mid-century furniture from thrift stores and junk shops around the world has nearly been run. Amongst all the pieces that have been liberated from abandonment and can only be found at hugely inflated prices are the chairs and tables made by the Buckinghamshire firm of Ercol. Set up by Lucian Ercolani in 1920, Ercol is still proudly manufacturing today, and it was Ercolani’s mastery of craft and form that made its pieces so enduring. Lesley Jackson’s monograph is filled with archive imagery and a comprehensive overview of the company’s many ranges.

Published by Richard Dennis Publications, £25

Writer: Jonathan Bell

Pixel Stress
By Anouk Kruithof

Artist Anouk Kruithof Googled the word ‘stress’, enlarged the resulting images by 3200% and installed them as a series of framed prints on the busy pavement of New York City’s Wall Street. Engaging with passers-by, she asked them to take a moment to look at the installation and if they would like to purchase one of the prints. While peddling her prints, Kruithof gave away 8 of the 14 prints in imaginary sales. The social project has now been documented in a new book, Pixel Stress, which includes loose glossy pages of the artworks as well quotes from her curbside conversations.

Published by RVB Books, €28

Writer: Mariel Reed

Lucio Fontana: Catalogo ragionato dell'opera su carta
By Luca Massimo Barbero

The drawings of Lucio Fontana, an Italian painter, sculptor and theorist who was best known as the founder of Spatialism, is the focus of a weighty new publication by Skira. Edited by Luca Massimo Barbero - associate curator at the Guggenheim in Venice - the catalogue is ordered chronologically and is divided according to the wide-ranging creative activities explored by the artist. Experimentation on paper was, in fact, Fontana’s favourite medium to explore new ideas and the hefty three volumes reveal a fascinating take of his entire oeuvre.

Published by Skira, £335

Writer: Jessica Klingefuss