Christmas Reading

 

 

A wolf named Virginia.  Quirkily charming watercolor and pen and ink illustrations. They had me at the cover.

 

What, I ask, is more lovely under the Christmas tree than stack  of books wrapped individually in bright paper sporting perky satin ribbons? They make my heart beat faster than any tiny jewelry box, even those blue ones. Christmas just isn't Christmas for me until  that moment when all the gift-giving is done, the floor trashed with torn wrappings, the sound of computer games being played by children, and my time to have a cup of coffee, a gingerbread cookie, and a snuggle on the couch with a brand new book.

This year,  my eye was  caught not just by the stacks of novels and memoirs I'd like to be receiving, but by a gloriously diverse selection of art and design books.

 

 

This thick, heavy paperbound book is just pages and pages of artists' sketchbooks that combine text and imagery. I have a serious crush on typography and have a folder full of posters and prints I am waiting to buy as soon as I find the wall space to hang them all. The only problem with the book is that as soon as I start looking at it, I run for my journal and a selection of pens and pencils and start creating my own alphabets, which is not such a bad thing after all.

 

Elegant, fantastical, and sigh-inducing. This one is on my Christmas wish list (yoo hoo family, hope you are reading).

 

 

I know the aphorism  is, "Don't judge a book by its cover" - but I do all the time and so do you. I may end up hating the book or being bored by it, but I will remember the cover art long after I forget the plot.  However, what  I've noticed is that I am rarely led astray into buying a book that I won't enjoy if the cover art has the same sensibility as the book.   Connolly, a famous author himself,  has published a retrospective of and homage to the publishing house of Faber and Faber. The author says it better than I could, 

'a lavish celebration of the art and beauty of these magnificent covers, from just the first eighty years'. Even gazing at these so slim spines, I was taken. And at the foot of each one, the word Faber. The vitality of the design, even on these very narrow spines, compelled me to slide out the books. And the covers! Oh my goodness, the covers ...the colour, strength and typography were not at all brash, but merely dynamic: here, I thought, was splendour. And it was the covers that encouraged me to open the books. And to read. And then to discover.

 

You have to order it used on Amazon and it's a bit pricey, but I think it is a must for anyone obsessed as I am with cover design.

 

An interesting spin on this subject,  is this marvelous book:

 

A couple of years ago, I was thinking about how to combine my love of art and my love of books and then it hit me: make mixed media collages of book shelves that held collections of books in theme that I love, like Italy, Jane Austen, fairy tales, etc. Artist Jane Mount,  has published a book of her paintings of the spines of people's favorite, most important books of their lives. The book is filled with illustrations of favorite books of celebrities including Alice Waters, Michael Chabon, and Jennifer Egan.  A few weeks ago, I happened upon a show of the illustrations at The powerHouse Arena bookstore in Brooklyn, and they are fabulous! 

Have you read The Time Traveler's Wife? It was on all the best seller lists a few years ago and made into a movie.  The author, who also wrote the weirdly spooky Her Fearful Symmetry, is also the author of several graphic novels.  I found it on a link from someone's book blog, but had I run across it in a bookstore I would have snatched it up without a thought just based on the cover. Nifenegger is a talented visual artist and describes the process of creating this book over ten years time as her greatest accomplishment. It is about a young woman who is out wandering one night and finds a bookmobile waiting for her - a bookmobile that has every single book she's ever read in her life.  The author has several other graphic novels, each more odd than the next, and I mean odd in a wonderfully offbeat and startling way.

 

 

 

I have never done any printmaking, but I've always been drawn to its graphic, bold quality. Lewin's book is just gorgeous and will make you consider printmaking in a new light. Her works are filled with plants and places, as the title says, but the plants seem to move in the breeze and prints are fragile and crisp at the same time.  She is represented by St. Jude's and you can even buy wallpaper and fabric printed with her natural elements.

 

 

I haven't been this excited about a new artist in quite some time. Mark Hearld is an English artist who combines drawing, painting, collage, stamp carving, and printmaking to create his vibrant, joyous, artwork celebrating the natural world.  The book above is an oversized children's book that he illustrated and has lovely text by Nicola Davies. Trust me, this is not a book just for children. The illustrations are stunning and the writing is lyrical and poetic. I keep it on my bedstand and read a few pages each night. 

 

I am not afraid of being labeled as a Mark Hearld groupie. He is having a banner year, what with the publication of his book showcasing his work, but also winning a British Design Award for  his wallpaper, "Hare".  The book will not be released in the US until after the new year, but if you just cannot wait to see this splendid book, you can order it from The Book Depository,  like I did.

 

Hearld was greatly influenced by British artists of the middle of the last century, and one of them was Eric Ravilious. Most of Ravilious's books are out of print, but severl facsimiles have been published. His work combines folk art and mid century illustration and depicts the people and places of Britain during those times. If you are an Anglophile like me, and regularly pop into blogs such as Spitafields Life,   then you will enjoy Ravilous's work.

 

 

This is not a design book, but a book by the author of the blog that features contemporary lives in the historic East End of London. The illustrations, including those by Mark Hearld are charming and reading the book is finding those bits of London that echo with 19th century ghosts and the sights of sounds of midcentury.

 

 

 

The above are several other exquisite collections of Ravilious works.  Prices vary as they are all used books and I'm not giving any links as you can search them for the best price yourselves if you are interested.

 

 

 

The book is out of print but you can find copies of it at used book dealers on line and sometimes on Amazon. It is a small, simple book written by a gardener of her personal journey to create a garden. The woodcut illustrations are exquisite.

 

 

This is Sibella Court's 4th book.  The native Australian is a stylist and perhaps best known for her work for Anthropology. Her books are absolutely gorgeous, filled with heavy papers, art photography,  diverse collections, and global locations. The rich matte colors that she uses have are a particular love of mind. Her latest book focuses on how to organize and display collections. I am sure everyone who reads this book will wonder at her ability to collect and style everything from rope to taxidermy specimens. Her style is very striking, relying on rich, matte colors of indigo, Kraft brown, turquoise, creams, and metal hues. 

 

On a completely different plane, is  Charlotte Moss: A Visual Life: Scrapbooks, Collages, and Inspirations I haven't actually seen it in person yet, but I  intrigued by the description:

Moss brings together her own scrapbooks along with those of notable women, both contemporary and historical, whose flair for style inspires us, including interior designer Elsie de Wolfe and society doyenne Gloria Vanderbilt—all never before published. Organized by theme—home, garden, travel, entertaining, and fashion—each chapter includes examples of Moss’s signature style mingled with excerpts from the scrapbooks of these great women. From the ambassador’s wife and bon vivant Evangeline Bruce, we learn that she preferred accessorizing tabletops with simple florets of broccoli in biscuit tins. And from the iconic Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis...

I probably will wait until I can get over to Barnes and Noble to check it out in person because it is pricey.

 

I hope you have enjoyed my eclectic round up of my favorite design books of 2012. I am sure I've missed a couple and I have completely left out all the mixed media books because I know that most of us have seen these books on other blogs and in magazines.

 

I am anxious to hear your own recommendations and finds because regardless of what is under the tree this year,  books are meant to be bought,   err, read!