Phaidon Press is not the most adventurous publisher of contemporary art titles, but they are remarkably reliable, and their distribution is great - often smuggling contemporary art into suburban bookstores. The press celebrates their hundred anniversary this year, having begun in Vienna, in 1923. They have sold fifty million books worldwide in their first century.
The Contemporary Artist Series is a growing collection of monographs that began in 1995, and have included titles with good reproductions and thoughtful essays on:
Marina Abramović, Vito Acconci, Francis Alÿs, Lynda Benglis, Christian Boltanski, Vija Celmins, Isa Genzken, Tacita Dean, Mark Dion, Fischli & Weiss, Theaster Gates, Tom Friedman, Hans Haacke, Mona Hatoum, Jenny Holzer, Roni Horn, Alex Katz, On Kawara, Mike Kelley, Yayoi Kusama, Christian Marclay, Kerry James Marshall, Lucy Orta, Raymond Pettibon, Nancy Spero, Stephen Shore, Roman Signer, Sarah Sze, Wolfgang Tillmans, Lawrence Weiner, and Ai Weiwei.
A long over-due title on Yoko Ono is slated for this November. Laurie Anderson is listed as a contributing author.
In the image above - of my modest collection as it stood a few years ago - the Maurizio Cattelan title bucks the standard format of the series. Reportedly when he was invited to participate he agreed on the condition that his book would be seventy-five percent smaller than all of the others.
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