The intimate history of the home, by acclaimed historian Lucy Worsley, is a trove of unusual facts. You learn, for instance that only in the 19th century did bedrooms and bathrooms become private spaces and that people in the Medieval Age sometimes slept standing up. Want to know why? Curious to discover about the groaning chair, the history of toilet paper or why it took two centuries to develop the flush toilet? Read On. A guide to the essence of domestic life, in all its quirky wonder.
“If Walls could Talk, an Intimate History of the Home,” by Lucy Worsley. Faber and Faber, 16 USD.
A fascinating treatise on how animals (dead and alive) have invaded art and gallery spaces. Remember Joseph Beuy’s live-in coyote, Janis Kounelle’s installation of live horses or Damien Hirst’s preserved shark? Giovanni Aloi delves into all these examples to uncover the role of the animal in art and the implications of the controversial relationship. An erudite meditation on primitivism and the juxtaposition between artificial space and natural life.
“Art and Animals,” by Giovanni Aloi. I.B. Tauris, 27.50 USD
Everything you always wanted to know about the button but were too afraid to ask. Nina Edwards’s book is an inventive exploration on the secret life of buttons and their often neglected importance. Like neglected treasures invested with the memories of clothes past - Louis XIV, for example, spent a fortune on his - this is a cultural history traces the button’s pedigree from previous fastenings through to the modern day, via button-badges and, yes, even button jewellery. Once you’re finished, you’ll never look at the humble buttons the same way again
“On the Button: The Significance of an Ordinary Item,” by Nina Edwards. I.B. Tauris, 25 USD
After a decade of conversations with Ferran Adria, renowned food writer Colman Andrews traces the Spanish super-chef’s rise from his beginnings as a cook in the military to the creative genius behind one of the world’s most famous restaurants, El Bulli. An intimate overview of the man who sparked a culinary revolution with his hot jellies and liquid nitrogen dishes, Adria says this will be the last book authorized by him, so it could be your last and only reference.
“Reinventing Food. Ferran Adria: The man who changed the way we eat” by Colman Andrews. Phaidon Press, 32 USD.
Architect Rem Koolhaas teams up with curator Hans Ulrich Obrist to interview the surviving members of the Metabolism movement, possibly the last radical, non-Western movement to treat architecture as a public affair. Although the man who sparked this movement, Kenzo Tange, died in 2005, the same year both writers began their interviews, the “mass of conversations constructed around his absence” Has nevertheless resulted in a beautifully illustrated book with archival photographs. Truly a collector’s item.
“Project Japan: Metabolism Talks…,” by Rem Koolhaas and Hans Ulrich Obrist, Taschen, 59.99 USD.
