Books: Norman Mailer, MoonFire: The Epic Journey of Apollo 11

To commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing, TASCHEN has paired Norman Mailer’s seminal text with spectacular photography–from the archives of NASA and LIFE magazine and many other sources-to create a unique tribute to the defining scientific mission of our era.

It has been called the single most historic event of the 20th century: On July 20, 1969 Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins met John F. Kennedy’s call for a manned Moon landing by the end of the 1960s. A decade of tests and training, a staff of 400,000 engineers and scientists, and a $24 billion budget climaxed with the launch of the most powerful rocket ever built, and an unprecedented event watched by millions the world over. And nobody captured the men, the mood, and the machinery like Norman Mailer.

MoonFire: The Epic Journey of Apollo 11 by Norman Mailer, Colum McCann,
Published by TASCHEN, Limited Edition of 1957 copies, No. 1–1957, Hardcover in a box + framed print, 36.5 x 44 cm, 350 pages ISBN: 9783836511797
Update: Now available as a standard hardcover edition.

Buy it here: Amazon, or Standard Hardcover Edition

Books: Never Use White Type on a Black Background

In design school you will encounter people who revel in ridiculous design rules, like the graphic design professor I had, who I still quote today: “When in doubt, use a drop shadow.” Anneloes van Gaalen has gathered some of the better known rules as they relate to the design discipline, including fashion, typography, art and advertising. The illustrated book is peppered with quotes from the famous and not-so-famous; like a condensed version of Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, but for design professionals.

Design has many rules that claim to be big truths and full of wisdom. Designers all go by rules that work for them. However, their rules may not work for someone else, or for a particular piece of design work. As Tibor Kalman once said, “Rules are good. Break them.”

Here are some quotes from the book, by some of our favorite people:

“The client may be king, but he’s not the art director.”
- Von R. Glitschka

Anyone can make the simple complicated. Creativity is making the complicated simple.”
- Charles Mingus

“Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.”
- Oscar Wilde

“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”
- Samuel Beckett

Never Use White Type on a Black Background: And 50 Other Ridiculous Design Rules, Edited by Anneloes van Gaalen, BIS Publishers, Hardcover, Dimensions: 12 x 17 cm, Pages: 160 ISBN: 9789063692070

Buy it here: Amazon

Ingrid Siliakus—Paper Architect

Paper Architecture is the art of creating an object out of a single piece of paper. Before the final design is finished, something like 20 to 30 (sometimes even more) prototypes are made by Ingrid Siliakus. Drawing paper architecture designs to Ingrid is as building: first one layer, with a single shape, will be drawn and than layer after layer are added. To design a pattern from scratch, the artist needs the skills of an architect to create a two-dimensional design, which, with the patience and precision of a surgeon, becomes an ingenious three-dimensional wonder of paper.

“A growing number of papercraft artists are enjoying the exquisite art of architectural origami, where a single sheet of paper is cut and folded into an intricate miniature structure. Here, three of the world’s leading proponents provide instructions and templates for recreating twenty of the world’s great buildings, from the Taj Mahal to the Rialto Bridge. There are basic principles to start you off, as well as galleries of the finest architectural origami from around the world.”

The Paper Architect, Marivi Garrido (Spain), Joyce Aysta (America) and Ingrid Siliakus (Netherlands), Hardcover, 110 pages (70pp plus 40pp templates), 23cm X 28cm,
ISBN: 9780307451477

Buy it here: Amazon

Books: House: Work by House Industries

House Industries is famous for their impeccable tongue-in-cheek takes on American popular culture, on comic influences such as Ed “Big Daddy” Roth and on modern design classics from Neutra to Charles Eames. Based in Delaware, its members have been producing premier league typefaces and designs for a devoted fan base since 1993.

Because their font and design work deftly meld cultural, musical and graphical elements, one becomes part of a concept and a way of life by
buying a House product. Their prize-winning font families, for example, are lovingly packaged to match the overall font theme in wallets, bowling bags, UFOs, etc. Their unique type products can be seen internationally on anything from your favourite brand of cereal to highly circulated magazines and television shows.

House by Andy Cruz, Ken Barber, Rich Roat, 24cm x 30cm, 240 pages,
ISBN: 978-3-931126-20-9

Buy it here: Amazon

Books: Calder 1898-1976

When the final tally of key movers in the plastic arts of this century is compiled, there is no doubt that maestro of movement Alexander Calder (1898-1976), the man who put the swing into sculpture, will be near numero uno. Calder took it off the plinth, gave it to the wind, and left us kinetic playgrounds of the spirit. He operated at the point where Modernity and nature fused, developing an environmental art that changed the medium forever. Visiting his Paris atelier in 1932, Duchamp coined the term “Mobiles” for Calder’s delicate wire and disc pieces, constructions that would soon become immensely popular.

But he didn’t rest on his innovations. Friends with Miro, Mondrian and Leger, Calder also turned his hand to painting, drawing, gouaches, toys, textiles and utensil design. A graphic master who sketched as much in air as in ink, the Sixties and Seventies saw Calder take on the monumental, translating the dynamics of cities into both his Mobiles and “Stabiles”. At a time when sculpture was perceived to be the antithesis of movement, Calder unmade gravity and freed the elements in a body of work that is still sending a wind of change through the art world today.

Calder, 1898-1976, by Jacob Baal-Teshuva, 96 pages, Soft cover.
Buy it here: Amazon

Books: Fragiles: Porcelain Glass & Ceramics

Not long ago, porcelain, glass and ceramics were almost exclusively used to make ostentatious objects best suited for display in grandmother’s cabinet. But now these classic materials are experiencing a renaissance. Today, they are increasingly being utilised in playful ways by a new wave of designers and artists, who are inspired by Modernism’s clear forms as well as an ironic depiction of figures, kitsch and the Romantic. Armed with these influences and an expanded repertoire of forms made possible by technological developments such as rapid prototyping, these designers and artists are manifesting their creative visions in unconventional objects made of these fragile materials.

Fragiles is an eclectic collection of such contemporary work. This book presents industrial applications made from porcelain, glass and ceramics such as the exclusive, futuristic tableware now in use in avant-garde restaurants around the world. It also features artistic glass objects by Arne Quinze and Jerszy Seymour as well as striking porcelain products by Jurgen Bey, Marcel Wanders and Jaime Hayon. In addition to these projects by renowned creatives, Fragiles also contains an exciting selection of recent cutting-edge work by emerging talents.

Fragiles: Porcelain, Glass and Ceramics, Edited by, R. Klanten, S. Ehmann, S. Grill,
280 pages, full colour, hardcover

Buy it here: Amazon

Monograph: Jeff Koons

Koons For The Poor!
Jeff Koons’s entire oeuvre to date, at a decidely unKoonsian price. From kinky to kitsch via conceptual, Jeff Koons’ art is anything but conformist. Since he stunned the art world in the 1980s with basketball sculptures and stainless steel blow-ups, Koons has been contemporary art’s bad boy—a reputation he (ahem) nailed in the early 90s via works depicting him in flagrante delicto with then-wife Cicciolina, the Italian porn star-cum-politician. He followed these with Puppy, a 40-foot tall floral terrier installed at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. Koons’ exploitation of the banal, and aggrandizement of kitsch and pop imagery, has become his trademark. Despite his many critics, the work commands millions at auction and Koons’ position at the forefront of contemporary art is indisputable.

This exhaustive monograph includes a biographical essay by Ingrid Sischy, an Eckhard Schneider essay on Koons from a European perspective, and Katy Siegel’s detailed and scholarly analysis of his work. Arranged chronologically, with hundreds of large format images, it traces Koons’ career from 1979 to today. Not merely a sumptuous objet d’art, this is the most comprehensive study of Koons’ work yet published.

Jeff Koons, Edited by Hans Werner Holzwarth, 592 pages.
Buy it here: Amazon

Books: Alinea by Grant Achatz

The Chicago restaurant Alinea has its own molecular gastronomy wunderkind in Grant Achatz as he takes food in previously unimagined directions. This cookbook presents the exact recipes, grouped by season, from the restaurant kitchen, such as Yolk Drops with Asparagus, Lemon and Black Pepper or Bison with Beets, Blueberries and Burning Cinnamon, along with gorgeous closeup photographs of these jaw-droppingly fanciful creations. The book opens with essays by food world elder statesmen, including Michael Ruhlman and Jeffrey Steingarten, who lavish praise on Achatz’s approach, and Michael Nagrant, who explores the Alinea philosophy through a dish called “Black Truffle Explosion.” Achatz himself eloquently explains 10 techniques he uses at the restaurant to achieve his culinary goals, from “bouncing flavors” to custom service ware and aroma manipulation.

Though readers are encouraged to make the recipes, or at least interpret them so as to “craft an experience similar to dining at the restaurant,” where every minute involves intensive engagement with the food, most people will value the book more as a beautifully produced insight into Achatz’s creativity and perhaps a spur to their own, even when they are not making spheres of beet juice or mozzarella balloons. Purchase includes access to a companion Web site with video demonstrations, interviews and an forum with Achatz and his team. (Publishers Weekly)

Alinea Book by Grant Achatz, 416pp, Hardcover

Buy it here: Amazon

Books: The Big Fat Duck Cookbook by Heston Blumenthal

In this enormous, beautiful book, we hear the full story of the meteoric rise of Heston Blumenthal and The Fat Duck, birthplace of snail porridge and bacon-and-egg ice cream, and encounter the passion, perfection and weird science behind the man and the restaurant.

Heston Blumenthal is widely acknowledged to be a genius, and The Fat Duck has twice been voted the Best Restaurant in the World by a peer group of top chefs. But he is entirely self-taught, and the story of his restaurant has broken every rule in the book. His success has been borne out of his pure obsession, endless invention and a childish curiosity into how things work – whether it’s how smell affects taste, what different flavours mean to us on a biological level, or how temperature is distributed in the centre of a soufflé.

In the first section of The Big Fat Duck Cookbook, we learn the history of the restaurant, from its humble beginnings to its third Michelin star (the day Heston received the news of this he had been wondering how exactly he would be able to pay his staff that month). Next we meet 50 of his signature recipes – sardine on toast sorbet, salmon poached with liquorice, hot and iced tea, chocolate wine – which, while challenging for anyone not equipped with ice baths, dehydrators, vacuum pumps and nitrogen on tap, will inspire home cooks and chefs alike. Finally, we hear from the experts whose scientific know-how has contributed to Heston’s topsy-turvy world, on subjects as diverse as synaesthesia, creaminess and flavour expectation.

With an introduction by Harold McGee, incredible colour photographs throughout, illustrations by Dave McKean, multiple ribbons, real cloth binding and a gorgeous slip case, The Big Fat Duck Cookbook is not only the nearest thing to an autobiography from the world’s most fascinating chef, but also a stunning, colourful and joyous work of art.

The Big Fat Duck Cookbook by Heston Blumenthal Hardback, 532 pages, 340x290mm
Buy it here: Amazon

Books: Martin Parr Parrworld

Parrworld is the title of the exhibition about Martin Parr’s collections, curated by Thomas Weski and first shown at Munich’s Haus der Knust in May 2008, and his combined two-volume accounts of Parr collected objects and postcards.
Postcards is both a serious consideration of the history of the form and a visual entertainment. Its themed chapters include World War I, Smog and Shopping, with sequences of cards on subjects as varied as the suffragettes, coronation bonfires and motorway service stations.
Objects presents Parr collection of eccentric ephemera-from Saddam Hussein watches to Spice Girls chocolate bars.
Both books are personal, hilarious and often poignant reflections upon the history of the 20th century…welcome to Parrworld!

Martin Parr Parrworld, Curated by Thomas Weski, Hardback in a slip case.
Buy it here: Amazon