12 Art Books to buy for Christmas

1 Bailey's East End (Steidl)

Bloody hell this three volume book of photos is incredible. These city shots paint an entirely different image of Bailey. For anyone interested in cities, the documentation of gentrification, London in any way and the photographic medium at all - buy this book.

2 Mike Nelson: An INVOCATION (Focal Point)

Five Hundred and Thirty Books from Southend Central Library

There are only 1000 copies of this artwork cum book and my god its good. Hundreds of juxtaposed images from book sleeves, back covers, title pages, inserts. Its an approach Nelson has done before in print form but never to this level. Long live the library.

3 Constructing Worlds by Alona Pardo and Elias Redstone (Prestel) 

Constructing Worlds at the Barbican is an incredible show and Prestel's catalogue captures these images of the changing photographic approach to architecture perfectly - but as a companion it would be silly not to get co-curator Elias Redstone's Phaidon tome Shooting Space. Why choose? Get both.

4 Branding Terror (Merrell)

This is obviously a deeply disturbing book and its fascinating. The kind of book that you know will become a huge collectors item. A serious and thorough examination of the meaning, design and iconography of terrorist group's logos. Each are reproduced and dissected in depth. 

5 Cee Cee Berlin (Distanz Verlag)

This brilliant hard back guidebook to places in the city is based on a great city based newsletter. (Autocenter gets a namecheck). It gives me faith that my second favourite city still has some kind of creative innovation and desirable spots that havent been ruined by the onslaught of start up dicks.

6 Shit and Die

My love for the tumblr of this show in Turin never ceases and the show itself in Turin which launched to coincide with Artissima (and runs until January) was very well done with work  Sarah Lucas  and Carol Rama. The catalogue with its repro Olivetti ad cover should start popping up at an art book shop near you. Buy it.

7 'Jim's Terrible City: JG Ballard and Shanghai' by James H Bollen

The best independent photo book to pop up on my shelf from this photographer who followed Ballard's footsteps in Shanghai. The images are really a brilliant ode to the changing face of the city, the absence of history and Ballard's own lingering ghost.

8 The Hidden World by Jim Shaw (Walter Konig)

Jim Shaw collects the weirdest crap and it is utterly fascinating. Aside from providing a brilliant insight into his own work, his collections of Alien obsessive memorabilia, weird Christian crap and general odd kitsch freakdown is brilliant. It is printed to resemble a small very warped bible.

9 Art and Politics Now by Anthony Downey (Thames & Hudson)

Ah Christmas. The time of pure consumption. If you want to give a gift if protest and dissent this seems like a good place to start - a visual book focusing on current manifestations of the political in art (often in public space).

10 Shinro Ohtake by Ziba Ardalan (Parasol Unit) 

This Japanese genius artist has recently had his first big show in London EVER - which is insane considering the amazing projects he has shown at Documenta and the Venice Biennale in the past few years. This book is a great introduction to his collage approach to sketchbooks, sculpture and everything else.

11 The Folly Acres Cook Book by Sue Webster (Other Criteria)

If you know someone that likes art and food Webster (without Noble) has put together this diary like punk scrawled cookbook interspersed with drawings that is rather brilliant. Road kill roast is not the norm. Generally the food if quite good for vegetarians.

12 The Book of Hearts by Francesca Gavin (Laurence King)
Because its a lovely little gift obviously, there are hundreds of hearts in it and its a way of giving emotion without words. And you get to read a little texts about Emblemata books, weird cults and the history of Mexican visual culture.

Bookish Londoners should also head to the seedy side streets of soho for the pop up Antenna Books, 8 Walkers Court, Soho W1 and if you buy one new magazine this year it should be SPACE.

Update Update

Lots of writing out and about at the moment (gosh whenever I write that explaining update delays it makes me cringe and think of this Cory Arcangel project!!)

So here are 10 things I have written and seen and recommend to all - aside from The Book of Hearts which has made appearance at Grand Central Station, Artwords and Scribbler (as well at the Observer magazine and Independent online)

1 I was turned on by these exhibitions: Gauguin at Ordovas, William Burroughs at Photographers Gallery, Stephen Willats at Raven Row, Cecile B Evans online AGNES piece for the Serpentine, Christian Jankowski at Lisson and the incredible Heath Bunting piece 'Skint' in the Contemporary Art Society show at Whitechapel

2 Interviews with Simon Denny and Nate Boyce respectively for Postmatter.com

3 Cover feature interview with Bjarne Melgaard about his Gavin Brown show for the Man/Boy issue of Sleek

4 The Return of Paris for Artsy

5 Top 10 Girls on Show for Dazed Digital

6 How art is getting to grips with on and offline space for Artsy

7 My Dazed Q&A with Ed Atkins now online

8 Piece on my September show at V1 Gallery included in issue 1 of Riposte

9 Issue 9 of Twin magazine on shelves with interview I did with Kerry James Marshall, pieces on Philip Lorca di Corcia, Nicola Tyson Copenhagen art scene and a curated exhibition project from Henry Kinman.

10 Interviews with Camille Henrot and Collier Schoor in the girls rule issue of Dazed

Image Tales of Paradise: Gauguin installation view, Photography by Mike Bruce at Ordovas 

The Book of Hearts press

Some nice online plugs for the new book. Vogue.com gave it a little mention and there was an exclusive preview and interview at nowness.com - screengrabbed above - For the full slide show click here

It was also named by The Independent as one of the top 10 best buys for Valentines day!
A few other nice mentions on Complex, Hypebeast, Wgsn and A Little Bird.

Buy the book at amazon or from laurenceking.com

The Book of Hearts

My next book is about to be published! The Book of Hearts

What is a heart? A symbol? An organ? A metaphor? The heart has been an object of fascination since people first became aware of the thing beating in their chests. This book examines the breadth of visual interpretations of this symbol.

The first image of the heart was in a picture of a woolly mammoth on a cave wall, created around 10,000 BC. The more traditional heart shape as we know it today probably evolved from the image of an ivy leaf – a plant that represented sensuality and immortality in ancient Greece. The indented heart shape was really established in the fourteenth century, being used in over 160 trademarks for paper manufacturers, devloped from stylized leaves. For centuries, the symbol and word were intertwined with ideas of passion and love. By the nineteenth century the heart had become a cliché – only reinvented in the 1960s and 70s, when it began to be used in pop cultural imagery.

From the Sacred Heart cult to the invention of the Valentine, from heart tattoos to pictograms. This collection of heart imagery highlights how a universal symbol can be creatively interpreted and constantly reinvented.

Featured artists include: Julie Verhoeven, Scott Campbell, Noble and Webster, Rob Ryan, Aleksandr Mir, Keith Haring, Anthony Micaleff, Yinka Shonibare, Angelique Houtkamp (cover image above), Marcel Duchamp and Hellicar and Lewis (image below)