The Swedish painter Hilma af Klint (1862–1944) was 44 years old when she broke with the academic tradition in which she had been trained. While her naturalistic landscapes and botanicals were shown during her lifetime, her body of radical, abstract works never received the same attention.

Today, it is widely accepted that af Klint produced the earliest abstract paintings by a trained European artist. But this is only part of her story.

Not only was she a successful woman artist, but she was also an avowed clairvoyant and mystic. Like many of the artists at the turn of the twentieth century who developed some version of abstract painting, af Klint studied Theosophy, which holds that science, art, and religion are all reflections of an underlying life-form that can be harnessed through meditation, study, and experimentation. Well before Kandinsky, Mondrian and Malevich declared themselves the inventors of abstraction, af Klint was working in a non-representational mode, producing a powerful visual language that continues to speak to audiences today.

The exhibition of her work in 2018 at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City attracted more than 600,000 visitors, making it the most-attended show in the history of the museum/institution.

Despite her enormous popularity, there has not yet been a biography of af Klint—until now. Inspired by her first encounter with the artist’s work in 2008, Julia Voss set out to learn Swedish and research af Klint’s life—not only who the artist was but what drove and inspired her. The result is a fascinating biography of an artist who is as great as she is enigmatic.

Stories of the secret underground Cold War-era Soviet music subculture that distributed forbidden music on used hospital x-rays.

During the Cold War era, the songs that Soviet citizens could listen to were ruthlessly controlled by the state. But a secret underground subculture of music lovers and bootleggers defied the censors, building recording machines and making their own records of forbidden jazz, rock ‘n’ roll, and Russian music, cut onto used hospital x-ray film. Bone Music is the follow up the acclaimed X-Ray Audio – The Strange History of Soviet Music on the Bone, delving deeper into a forgotten era when being a music fan could mean a lengthy prison sentence, or worse.

Who made these records? Why did they do it and how was it even possible? Foregrounding interviews and oral testimonies gathered over five years, Bone Music presents the stories of the original bone bootleggers, their customers, musicians, record collectors, and commentators, evoking a spirited resistance to a repressive culture of prohibition and punishment. It reveals that although Western jazz and rock’n’roll were important to the Stilyagi youth culture, the true rebel music was that of forbidden Russian emigres, gypsy romances, and criminal tunes- the soul songs of a society brutally cut off from its culture.

Richly illustrated with dozens of new images of Soviet x-ray discs and sound letters, Bone Music details how the bootleggers worked, outlining the technical precedents of their techniques, situating their discs in a revised history of recorded media, and bringing a wealth of compelling new detail.

A Perth Camera is a treasure trove of rediscovered images by the late Ernie Polis from a lifetime spent photographing the city. Following his high-profile success with Perth Then & Now and Lost Perth, Richard Offen was contacted by the son of the late Ernie Polis, the long-time Perth City Surveyor.

Ernie had been both a keen amateur photographer (and in his role as surveyor had access to some great viewpoints) and a collector of historic photos of the city.

This trove of previously unpublished images give a unique view of the city from the 1950s through to the 1990s. Richard Offen has assembled the photos into themed chapters, sometimes revealing aspects of buildings that not even Heritage Perth were aware of.

Along with Richard’s insightful captions, the photos show both what was lost and give a Then and Now comparison between modern-day Perth and the one well-known to Ernie Polis.

In this, er, ‘unique’ illustrated potted history of the human race, Twitter icon James Felton uses his inimitable brand of banter to unveil the slyest, creepiest and/or nastiest specimens who’ve ever lived.

Enter the 16th Century Chinese Emperor Zhegende, whose harem was so big some of the women within it died of starvation, King Charles II’s executioner who would only give you a clean beheading if you paid properly for it beforehand, and llya Ivanovich Ivanov, the 19th Century scientist who was a mega asshole and if you buy the book you’ll find out why.

Darkly funny, highly informative and always unbelievable, these are the dead people you should be mad at.

From “A is for Anus” to “Z is for Zygomatic Bone,” Nicole Angemi’s My Anatomy Book offers a unique anatomical manual, accessible to all, that mixes a humorous tone with academic rigor. This guide, written by “the internet’s most famous human dissector” (Vice), features well-documented medical descriptions of all the pathologies, rare and common, that can worry, fascinate, or damage the bodies of people around the world, even in the age of modern medicine. Each case is accompanied by vintage anatomical drawings and stomach-churning descriptions that will be sure to both educate and delight!

Born and raised near Philadelphia, Nicole Angemi rose to fame as a “death assistant,” working as a Pathologists’ Assistant. She embraced the Latin phrase Mortui vivos docent, meaning the dead teach the living, and began to post about her daily life full of dissected bodies. Followed by almost two million fans, and many celebrities, she now dedicates her full time to her pedagogy lessons on Instagram.

Note: this manga contains strong references to suicide.

Three-time Eisner Award winner Junji Ito’s legendary sci-fi thriller, originally published in 2009, is finally available in English!

Four people intent on killing themselves meet through the suicide website Black Paradox: Maruso, a nurse who despairs about the future; Taburo, a man who is tortured by his doppelganger; Pii-tan, an engineer with his own robot clone; and Baracchi, a woman who agonizes about the birthmark on her face.

They wander together in search of the perfect death, fatefully opening a door that leads them to a rather bizarre destiny…

It’s the closest thing to seeing the world through Annie’s extraordinary eyes.

When Benedikt Taschen asked the most important portrait photographer working today, Annie Leibovitz, to collect her pictures in a SUMO-sized book, she was intrigued by the challenge. The project took several years to develop and when it was finally published in 2014, it weighed in at 26 kg (57 pounds).

This incredible collection is now available in an accessible XXL book format.

Leibovitz drew on more than 40 years of work, starting with the photojournalism she did for Rolling Stone magazine in the 1970s through the conceptual portraits she made for Vanity Fair and Vogue. She selected iconic images-such as John Lennon and Yoko Ono entwined in a last embrace-as well as portraits that had rarely, if ever, been seen before.

The Annie Leibovitz SUMO covered political and cultural history, from Queen Elizabeth II and Richard Nixon to Laurie Anderson and Lady Gaga.

“What I had thought of initially as a simple process of imagining what looked good big, what photographs would work in a large format, became something else,” Leibovitz says. “The book is very personal, but the narrative is told through popular culture. It’s not arranged chronologically and it’s not a retrospective. It’s more like a roller coaster.”

Fans of Leibovitz and her many celebrated subjects can now enjoy that same roller coaster ride for themselves with this unlimited edition.

There is something morbidly fascinating about the dark and grotesque. Although it is human nature to tiptoe around the uncomfortable (or avoid it altogether), some artists are inspired by the unsettling to create intriguing works of art that push the boundaries of normality and provoke viewers into exploring their fears and taboos. There are also others who use them as springboards of the imagination to express their innermost feelings and question the often-grim realities of existence.

In conjunction with Victionary’s 20th anniversary, the new edition of ‘DARK INSPIRATION’ combines most of the projects from the first two best-selling titles of the same name along with new work into one meaty celebration of the macabre. Featuring chilling depictions of childhood reveries, folklore, mysteries, and death in a variety of styles and interpretations, each project serves unconventionally as a celebration of life in all its gruesome glory.

Full colour illustrations throughout this diverse collection

With contributions from: Aitch, Akino Kondoh, Aleksandra Waliszewska, Alessandro Sicioldr Bianchi, Alex Garant, Alice Lin, Amandine Urruty, Audrey Kawasaki, Bene Rohlmann, Dadu Shin, Dan Hillier, Daniel Martin Diaz, Danny Van Ryswyk, David Ho, dromsjel, Eero Lampinen, Eika, Elisa Ancori, Erik Mark Sandberg, Evelyn Bencicova, Fabian Mérelle, Fiona Roberts, Francesco Brunotti, Francois Robert, Fuco Ueda, Gabriel Isak, Giacomo Carmagnola, Guim Tió Zarraluki, Hannes Hummel, Heiko Müller, James Jean, Januz Miralles, Jeff Mcmillan, Jesse Auersalo, Jim Johnson Tsang, Jon Beinart, Jules Julien, Justin Nelson, Kate Macdowell, Katy Horan, Kayan Kwok, Kim Simonsson, Kotaro Chiba, Lala Gallardo, Lola Dupre, Lostfish, Mariana Magdaleno, merve morkoç (Lakormis), Mia Mäkilo, Michael Reedy, Miranda Meeks, Nadja Jovanovic, Nicoletta Ceccoli, Oleg Dou, Olivia Knapp, Paola Rojas H & David Perez, Paul Hollingworth, Raffaello De Vito, Raul Oprea aka Saddo, Richard Colman, Ryan Oliver, Sergio Mora / Agency Rush, Tara McPherson, Till Rabus, Tim Lee, Yido, Yoshitoshi Kanemaki, Yuka Yamaguchi, Yury Ustsinau, and Zhou Fan

From the master storyteller and internationally bestselling author – the story of humanity from prehistory to the present day, told through the one thing all humans have in common: family.

We begin with the footsteps of a family walking along a beach 950,000 years ago. From here, Montefiore takes us on an exhilarating epic journey through the families that have shaped our world: the Caesars, Medicis and Incas, Ottomans and Mughals, Bonapartes, Habsburgs and Zulus, Rothschilds, Rockefellers and Krupps, Churchills, Kennedys, Castros, Nehrus, Pahlavis and Kenyattas, Saudis, Kims and Assads. A rich cast of complex characters form the beating heart of the story. Some are well-known leaders, from Alexander the Great, Attila, Ivan the Terrible and Genghis Khan to Hitler, Thatcher, Obama, Putin and Zelensky. Some are creative, from Socrates, Michelangelo and Shakespeare to Newton, Mozart, Balzac, Freud, Bowie and Tim Berners-Lee.

Others are lesser-known: Hongwu, who began life as a beggar and founded the Ming dynasty; Kamehameha, conqueror of Hawaii; Zenobia, Arab empress who defied Rome; King Henry of Haiti; Lady Murasaki, first female novelist; Sayyida al-Hurra, Moroccan pirate-queen. Here are not just conquerors and queens but prophets, charlatans, actors, gangsters, artists, scientists, doctors, tycoons, lovers, wives, husbands and children.

This is world history on the most grand and intimate scale – spanning centuries, continents and cultures, and linking grand themes of war, migration, plague, religion, medicine and technology to the people at the centre of the human drama. As spellbinding as fiction, The World captures the story of humankind in all its joy, sorrow, romance, ingenuity and cruelty in a ground-breaking, single narrative that will forever shift the boundaries of what history can achieve.

A beautiful collaboration between Belle and Sebastian frontman Stuart Murdoch and illustrator Pamela Tait: a unique visual reinterpretation of Murdoch’s favourite Belle and Sebastian songs.

From the imagined lives of the passengers riding Glasgow buses in the early 1990s to questions raised about the status quo and musings on the meaning of religion, Stuart Murdoch, frontman of Scottish indie pop band Belle and Sebastian, has written some of the most captivating lyrics of the past two decades. Belle and Sebastian recorded their first critically acclaimed album Tigermilk in three days, played a sold-out show at the Hollywood Bowl with the LA Philharmonic, and famously forgot their drummer, dressed in his pyjamas, outside a Walmart. Their songs have animated many film soundtracks, developing a cult following that has helped to define the sound of indie music as we know it today.

The first book in the Illustrated Lyrics series combines the words selected from over twenty-four years of Belle and Sebastian songs with specially commissioned illustrations from Scottish artist Pamela Tait, whose intricate and whimsical character illustrations Stuart Murdoch stumbled upon and fell in love with when he rediscovered old fan mail Pamela had sent to him over a decade ago. Set with expressive typography, this is an exceptional publication that will seduce even the most devoted fans to ‘see’ these wonderful songs afresh.