The W* Library: flick through August’s 10 new titles

Moleskine: Inspiration and Process in Architecture

Moleskine continues its series of pocket-sized monographs, delving into the minds and designs of some of the world's leading architects. The latest volumes are from Studio Mumbai and Dominique Perrault, after earlier publications from Zaha Hadid, Alberto Kalach and Wiel Arets. Subtitled 'Inspiration and Process in Architecture,' each book delves into the minds of its author, pulling together sketches, scribbles, snapshots and plans of the genesis of recent projects. Despite the difference between Perrault's slinky high-tech and Studio Mumbai's hand-crafted approach, the books show that everything starts with a sketch.

Published by Moleskine, £27

Writer: Jonathan Bell

The Modern Magazine: Visual Journalism in the Digital Era
By Jeremy Leslie

An insightful glimpse into the current publishing landscape - and not only because Wallpaper* scooped a few mentions - The Modern Magazine chronicles the rapidly changing face of editorial design, and how magazines have adapted to the rise of digital media. The last decade in particular has seen the industry undergo a metamorphosis, and the book delves into key themes thrown up, including the ever-prevailing digital versus print debate. Supplemented by striking visuals, revealing interviews with key figures, forecasts into future visual trends, links to blogs and more, the book provides a fruitful resource for budding and established designers alike.

Published by Laurence King(opens in new tab), £28

Writer: Jessica Klingelfuss

Formica Forever

Ah, the sweet smell of a retro material getting its own celebratory monograph. Formica was born out of the early twentieth century boom in artificial materials, but found its place in popular culture in the boom years following World War 2. Formica became a key component of America's populist modernism, bright, no-fuss, wipe clean and futuristic. The company went worldwide, becoming the power behind pop and a driving force in the DIY drive to reinvent the modern home. Published to celebrate the company's centenary, Formica Forever is a fascinating corporate history allied to an enviable image bank.

Published by Metropolis Books, £39.95

Writer: Jonathan Bell

Momo
By Michael Ende, with drawings by Marcel Dzama

When Lucas Zwirner came upon an English translation of German writer Michael Ende's Momo, a tale first read to him (by his gallerist father, David) as a child, he saw room for improvement. 'The translation turned this into a children's book, which is not the way I had remembered hearing it,' says Zwirner, who tackled his own translation and recruited artist Marcel Dzama to illustrate the fantasy story, in which an orphan girl with a gift for listening threatens the joyless world envisioned by shadowy men out to steal people's time. 'The villains are ominous presences - dressed in gray, smoking cigars, carrying briefcases, wearing hats - and they seemed like characters that you see lurking in a lot of Marcel's drawings,' says Zwirner, who just graduated from Yale. 'It was a perfect fit.'

Published by McSweeney's McMullens, $22

Writer: Stephanie Murg

The Images of Architects
By Valerio Olgiati

This beautiful volume has been compiled by the Swiss architect Valerio Olgiati. Essentially a mood book about inspiration, Olgiati approached 40 of his peers from around the world and asked them for up to ten images of things that shape their view of work and the world. Art, architecture, landscape, craft, technology; if such refined minds as Alvaro Siza Vieira, Kazuyo Seijima, Richard Meier, Glen Murcutt, et al, had Tumblrs, perhaps this is what they'd see. Instead you get a discretely designed volume, replete with velvety end-papers, that elevates image curation to another level.

Published by Quart Verlag, €58

Writer: Jonathan Bell

Curiosity: Art and the Pleasures of Knowing
Edited by Brian Dillon

Two catalogues from London's Southbank Centre build upon recent exhibitions to make for fascinating reading in their own right. Curiosity is an update of the age-old cabinet of curiosities, examining the pleasures of collecting, curating and assembling the unusual and esoteric. Dillon, UK editor of the fabulous Cabinet magazine, has a keen eye for the intersection of the anthropological and the fantastical.

Published by Hayward Publishing, £22.99

Writer: Jonathan Bell

The Alternative Guide to the Universe

Accompanying the Hayward Gallery exhibition of the same name, The Alternative Guide assembles an outsider's view of the world, from phantom architecture imaginary maps and weird science.

Published by Hayward Publishing, £27.99

Writer: Jonathan Bell

The Glory of Water
By Karl Lagerfeld

Fendi artistic director Karl Lagerfeld has focused his lens on the thousands of fountains that pepper Rome's cityscape for 'The Glory of Water', a new cloth-bound book published by Steidl. Why fountains, you might ask? 'Each Roman fountain bears witness to human experience. The origins, the locations and the elements of beauty of different centuries are something we can learn a lot from', says Lagerfeld in the book's foreword. But it's not just Lagerfeld's appreciation of Rome's fountains that brought about the 112-page tome -  there is the small matter of the hefty €2.1m project that Fendi has embarked on as sole sponsor in the restoration of the city's iconic Trevi Fountain and Four Fountains. The new book features a reflective selection of daguerreotype photography - the first commercially successful photographic process invented in circa 1837 by Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre. Typical to the effect created by daguerreotype, Largerfeld's dreamy shots of the fountains' fixtures and features appear to be floating in space.

Published by Steidl, €88

Writer: Apphia Michael

The Purple Book
Edited by Angus Hyland and Angharad Lewis

Proof, if any was needed, that we are living in a decadent and voyeuristic world, The Purple Book takes an obvious leaf from Lane and Mathews' Yellow Book, the innovative nineteenth century literary journal that hinted darkly at forbidden loves and strange liaisons, bound up in the sensuous illustrations of Aubrey Beardsley and his acolytes. 120 years later and things are looking purple, but the influence of Beardsley is more keenly felt than it has been since the Sixties. Bringing together the often explicitly erotic work of 27 contemporary illustrators, this book invites you to dive in.

Published by Laurence King, £35

Writer: Jonathan Bell

Concretopia: A Journey Around the Rebuilding of Post-War Britain
By John Grindrod

The architectural travelogue has become a familiar trope of modern publishing - from Lynsey Hansley's Estates: An Intimate History through to Owen Hatherley's keenly observed journeys through the overlooked, unappreciated and misguided aspects of Britain's towns and cities. Now it's John Grindrod's turn, although choosing to write about the brutalist era is a nice piece of nominative determinism if nothing else. It's a familiar story, perhaps, but his text provides a fascinating trawl through the highs and lows of comprehensive redevelopment. Hindsight has shaded the greys, giving us a fuzzy Instagrammed image of half a century of optimistic visions and shuddering crashes - it's all here, from the Poulson scandal, to abandoned ring-roads and vanishing industry - but this a great insight into why things turned out the way they did.

Published by Old Street Publishing, £25

Writer: Jonathan Bell