Book of the day > Yayoi Kusama: Give Me Love. David Zwirner Books. “Yayoi Kusama: Give Me Love documents the artist's most recent exhibition at David Zwirner, New York, which marked the US debut of The Obliteration Room, an all-white, domestic interior that viewers are invited to cover with dot stickers of various sizes and colors. Taking The Obliteration Room as its centerpiece, this catalogue reveals, in vivid large-scale plates, the transformation of the space from a clean white interior to a stunningly saturated room, with ceilings, walls, and furniture covered in myriad multicolored stickers put there by viewers over the course of the exhibition. The catalogue also includes beautiful reproductions of Kusama's new large-format paintings from My Eternal Soul series. Ranging from bright and densely pixelated forms, to umber figures with darker blues and muted oranges, these paintings demonstrate the artist's striking command of color, and her exceptional control over balance and contrast. Bold brushstrokes hover between figuration and abstraction; vibrant, animated, and intense, these paintings introduce their own powerful pictorial logic, at once contemporary and universal. The catalogue continues with a selection of new, large Pumpkin sculptures, a form that Kusama has been exploring since her studies in Japan in the 1950s, and which gained prominence in the 1980s, continuing to remain an essential part of her practice. Made of shiny stainless steel and featuring painted dots or dot-shaped perforations that recall The Obliteration Room, these immersive works seem created on human scale, with the tallest measuring 70 inches (178 cm). Vibrant plates capture how color, shape, size, and surface merge in these sculptures and mesmerize the viewer. Texts include a "Hymn to Yayoi Kusama" by art critic and poet Akira Tatehata and a poem by the artist herself.” $ 55.00

Book of the day > Border Cantos – Richard Misrach | Guillermo Galindo. Aperture. “This project presents a unique collaboration between photographer Richard Misrach - one of the most influential color photographers of his generation - and composer and performer Guillermo Galindo. Misrach has been photographing the two-thousand mile border between the U.S. and Mexico since 2004, with increased focus since 2009—the latest installation in his ongoing series Desert Cantos, a multi-faceted approach to the study of place and man’s complex relationship to it. Misrach and Galindo have been working together to create pieces that both document and transform the artifacts of migration. Using water bottles, clothing, backpacks, Border Patrol “drag tires,” spent shotgun shells, ladders, and sections of the border wall itself, most of which were collected by Misrach, Galindo fashions instruments to be performed as unique sound-generating devices. He also imagines graphic musical scores, many of which also use Misrach’s photographs as points of departure.

A unique melding of the artist as documentarian and interpreter, the book will include several suites of photographs drawn from a number of distinct series, or Cantos—some made with a large-format camera as well as an iPhone. The book will also contain a compilation of two dozen sculpture-instruments, graphic scores, instrument designs, and links to videos of performances by Galindo on the image-inspired instruments.” $ 75.00

Book of the day > Desert Rebels: Moroccan Motorcycle Culture. seltmann+soehne. “Barren mountains, endless sand dunes: In the middle of the desert, a tuned motorbike struggles up a heap of sand. Photographer Steffen Schulte-Lippern and the graphic designer Davis Pahl are thrilled by this bizarre encounter in the middle of the desert of Morocco. Soon the idea is born to publish an illustrated book about these bikers. On their over 2 800-mile journey across Morocco, they take pictures of many desert sons who have tuned their bikes and mopeds: colourful carpets and flashy stickers decorate the locals' bikes they are speeding along the breakneck routes with. Two-wheelers mean mobility for the young Moroccans. But that's not all: like in any other culture, motorcycles symbolise freedom and independence. Numerous fantastic pictures show the desert rebels with their bikes. Just as fascinating as the social and cultural contrasts is the landscape diversity, as the pictures also capture the beauty of Morocco's rougher regions.”

Book of the day > Varietés. La Fabrica. “Varietes is a collection of pictures taken between the 1920s and the 1970s featuring artists and popular spectacles not always within the law. A tour around the aesthetic of this very particular form of looking at variety shows in Spain. A journey through the faces and the attitudes of a world which actually shone much less than the photographs sought to show. Varietes is the history of the ephemeral flash and the failure which are inherent to this form of understanding the spectacle. Moreover, it is a tribute to so many people who belonged to a world which is on the way to extinction and where the illusion and the magic of the night claimed to have such a fleeting but beautiful power.”

Book of the day > Avedon / Warhol. Gagosian London. “Artists Richard Avedon and Andy Warhol came to prominence in a time of profound change around the world. Amid that political and social upheaval, both men became renowned for their work, elucidating themes of portraiture, celebrity, gender, politics, and religion. Avedon brought the personality of the sitter to the forefront, revealing his subjects’ inner selves. Warhol created portraits and images that were emotionally opaque, glamorous and impersonal.  Avedon and Warhol knew one another, and each had an abiding belief in the power of the image to seduce, amuse, and shock. They created original visions of the world around them, becoming two of the most influential artists of the 20th century."

Book of the day > Modern Forms: A Subjective Atlas of 20th-Century Architecture by Nicolas Grospierre. Prestel. “Form precedes function in this stunning visual archive of nearly 200 images of modern architecture by award-winning photographer Nicolas Grospierre. At once a reference work and a personal exploration of modernist architecture, this fascinating collection of Nicolas Grospierre's photography covers structures built between 1920 and 1989 in Europe, North and South America, the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia. These images range from iconic buildings, such as the Gateway Arch in Saint Louis and the Ukrainian Institute of Scientific Research and Development in Kiev, to little-known structures such as the Balneological Hospital in Druskininkai, Lithuania or Oscar Niemeyer's unfinished International Fair Grounds in Tripoli. Derived from his popular blog, A Subjective Atlas of Modern Architecture, and organized by architectural form, this book reveals how modernist architecture is the embodiment of political and social ideologies, especially in public institutions such as banks, churches, libraries, and government buildings. Following the series of full-page images, an index details the location, date, architect and purpose of each building. While many of the buildings in this archive often go unrecognized, their forms are prominent in the landscape of modern civilization. Grospierre's keen eye and enthusiasm for the mundane as well as the sublime will motivate readers to look at the buildings around them in new and exciting ways.”

Book of the day > Stephen Gill: Hackney Kisses. Archive of Modern Conflict. “Stephen Gill has worked for many years exploring the culture and environment of Hackney in East London. Some time ago he discovered the work of a lost photographer who had begun to interpret the photo of a kiss in a special and personal way. Kissing can be quite like the reverie in a beautiful forest; it can also be end-of-pier theatre. Our Master of the Hackney Kisses knows how these traits combine. His sensibility transcends the profession of wedding photographer – in each kiss you see the future; the past recedes. Reenactment is a pleasure.” — Timothy Prus

Book of the day > Issey Miyake. Taschen. “In 1983, Japanese designer Issey Miyake told The New Yorker that he aspired “to forge ahead, to break the mold.” With the boundary-defying fashion lines that followed, he not only broke molds, but recast clothing altogether. With a unique fusion of poetry and practicality, his creations blur the boundaries between tradition, modern technology, and everyday function.

This definitive history of Miyake’s clothes coincides with a major exhibition at The National Art Center, Tokyo to offer expert insight into the designer’s vision and daring. Initiated and conceived by Midori Kitamura, the book looks at the texture-driven originality of Miyake’s materials and techniques from the very earliest days of his career, before he had even established the Miyake Design Studio. Drawing on more than 40 years of collaborative work with Miyake, Kitamura creates an encyclopedic reference of his material and technical innovations through the clothes based on A Piece of Cloth concept, Body Series of the 1980s, Miyake Pleats series, and such practical, everyday designs as Pleats Please pieces.

Stunning photographs from Miyake’s contemporary Yuriko Takagi capture his clothes in their particular quotidian originality, including a breathtaking shoot in Iceland. In her far-reaching essay, meanwhile, leading cultural figure Kazuko Koike offers both a complete chronology of Miyake’s work, and an unprecedented personal profile, looking at the ambition and inspirations that have driven his repertoire from tender teenage years. A must-have for designers, students and fashion devotees, this is a timeless tribute to one of the most innovative makers of our age.”

Book of the day > Body of Art. Phaidon. “Body of Art is the first book to explore the various ways the human body has been both an inspiration and a medium for artists over hundreds of thousands of years. Unprecedented in its scope, it examines the many different manifestations of the body in art, from Anthony Gormley and Maya Lin sculptures to eight-armed Hindu gods and ancient Greek reliefs, from feminist graphics and Warhol's empty electric chair to the blue-tinted complexion of Singer Sargent's Madame X. It is the most expansive examination of the human body in art, spanning western and non-western, ancient to contemporary, representative to abstract and conceptual.

Over 400 artists are featured in chapters that explore identity, beauty, religion, absent body, sex and gender, power, body's limits, abject body and bodies & space. Works range from 11,000 BC hand stencils in Argentine caves to videos and performances by contemporary artists such as Marina Abramovic, Joan Jonas and Bruce Nauman. Its fresh, accessible and dynamic voice brings to life the thrilling diversity of both classical and contemporary art through the prism of the body. More than simply a book of representations, this is an original and thought provoking look at the human body across time, cultures and media.”

Happy Birthday Bruce Weber!  Book of the day > All-American XV: Leap of Faith. Te Neues. “Over and over in life, we are called upon to summon our inner resolve and make a leap of faith—to draw from our most personal source of meaning and step bravely into the unknown. How individuals find the strength and courage to do so is the unifying theme of All-American XV: Leap of Faith, the latest edition of Bruce Weber’s annual arts journal.

The centerpiece of All-American Volume XV: Leap of Faith is a long-form photo essay Weber shot this spring in Richmond, Virginia. Taking inspiration from the work of Angela Patton, an activist who organizes a father-daughter weekend each year, Weber presents a story of family, community and the impact of the justice system on everyday life in the city. An immigrant’s search for home finds unique expression in the photo memoir of Misa Rusek, a fearless octogenarian whose family’s journey begins in turn-of-the-century Japan and continues today in Israel, with reminiscences of internment camps and postwar California in between. A second story by Bruce Weber considers the sporting life in a profile of Gordy Gronkowski, who trained his five sons to become professional football and baseball players. A tribute to the lyrical American painter Jane Wilson stands in contrast to the rugged stoicism of Ben Johnson, a rancher-turned-actor favored by Sam Peckinpah and John Ford. The striking photographs of Thérèse Bonney—who documented the civilian toll of World War II—is echoed in and complicated by the contemporary work of the lauded photojournalist Lynsey Addario. Television host and political correspondent John Dickerson offers a personal reflection on the life and career of his mother, Nancy Dickerson, the pioneering CBS newswoman. And lighthearted risk takers are celebrated as well: Bruce Meyers, inventor of the Meyers-Manx dune buggy, and Jama Hedgecoth, the founder of the Noah’s Ark Animal Sanctuary in rural Georgia.”