Over Christmas I've been rummaging through several boxes of books and paper ephemera stored in the cellar. One of my finds is this edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, beautifully illustrated by Tove Jansson (the Moomins). It's from the Delacorte Press in 1978, however the illustrations were first published by Albert Bonniers Förlag in Sweden in 1966.
The main colour plates are great, but the small detailing for chapter ends and in the margins supporting the text are truly wonderful.
I found this in a second hand bookshop many years ago. Although it's rather battered and all the guilt has gone, it's still one of my favourite books (as objects). It's The Dance of Death by Hans Holbein. This particular edition is from George Bell and Sons in Covent Garden and is printed by Chiswick Press (Chancery Lane) in around 1897.
It's a tiny book (12x7.5 cm) and completely black on the outside, including the page edges. There was once guilt inlayed on the title on the spine but I think the small embossed skulls and crossbones were just black. It's topic is how Death is ever present, no matter who you are or what is your status. It also includes a history of Holbein's illustrations which date from 1538. I love this book it's one of my treasures despite the condition.
Superb book and exhibition covering contemporary Arab art, architecture and culture at Louisiana Museum, Denmark. The exhibition was truly inspiring with some amazing and very diverse pieces (more here: http://en.louisiana.dk/exhibition/arab-contemporary ).
As always the graphic design around the exhibition was excellent and the accompanying book is beautiful. The book has some great touches like the die cut cover and section divides, giving you a glimpse of what's there.
Continuing my two of kind theme, I've just received my copies of Visual Complexity and The Book of Trees both by Manuel Lima.
If you're a fan of Edward Tufte or just into information graphics and data visualisation, you'll love both of these. There's a little overlap but it's worth it. The most recent one (The Book of Trees ) is really wonderful. They are both from the excellent Princeton Architectural Press, whose publications I've raved about many times on this blog. They published the incredible Cartographies of Time, which is a book that I can pick up again and again.
Here's a sampling from Visual Complexity
Here's a sampling from The Book of Trees
Update:
I've spent a little time with these books now, and they are wonderful. However the typography in Visual Complexity troubles me. It's the body copy. It's justified on 2 columns and is set at a nice large size, but the line length, in my opinion, is too short. It causes lots of hyphenation and makes the gaps between words much larger than the 'i' rule. The result means the words appear disconnected, interestingly much like datapoints, but it's less legible.
Don't let this put you off, the book is still a sumptuous collection of fantastic data visualizations and ideas.
Finally picked up The Book of Imaginary Lands, the partner to The Infinity of Lists both by Umberto Eco. These two are gorgeous books, and written in Eco's erudite but warm and accessible style.
I was introduced to Eco when I was at art college, and 'had to' read Travels in Hyperreality. He's one of 3 authors (Eco, Calvino and Borges) whose love of labyrinths, lists and libraries has always excited and inspired me. I also love how they effortlessly write both fiction and, social and philosophical commentary.
These two books are visual treats, rich in illustrations, art and wonder.
Here's a few samples from The Infinity of Lists
Here's a few samples from The Book of Imaginary Lands
