Rare Special Editions available from ACC Art Books –  More Information

A game box of 100 illustrated cards to stimulate the phonological and pre-reading skills of 3 to 5 year olds. The set is divided into five categories (objects, professions, mode of transport, foods, and animals) with words of particular interest to young children. One side of each card features a word written in all caps, as well as in cursive, while the reverse side offers a visual representation of that word. Use the cards to teach recognition, challenge recall, or create stories! Ages 3-5

An extraordinary volume of the most important luxury watches. From the watch that flew to the moon (Omega Speedmaster), to the smallest calibre with the dimensions of 14 x 4.8 x 3.4 millimetres (Jaeger-LeCoultre Calibre 101), that Elizabeth II wore as a bracelet watch on her coronation day, and the watch model that has been in continuous production for over 100 years (Cartier Tank). Watch expert Gisbert L. Brunner present 100 extraordinary watch models and explains their history and uniqueness.

Text in English and German.

A visual journey through two centuries of history: this book collects 100 iconic photographs that captured crucial moments in human history. From world wars to space exploration, civil rights movements to climate change, each image is a window into the past, present, and even a possible future. Taken by legendary photographers or anonymous witnesses of their time, these pictures showcase the powerful storytelling ability of photography as a tool of collective memory. A striking, emotional, and visually rich volume—this updated edition of a bestselling classic brings history into sharp focus for today’s readers.

Everyone loves baby animals! Cute, tender and a bit goofy, the baby animals of each species are naturally born funny. This book shows the baby animals in their original sizes, showing them as they appear in nature. Page after page, the reader will be surprised by the details and characteristics of each baby, while learning everything about their behaviours and physical development. The latest title of our bestselling 100% Full Size series. After animals and bugs, children will learn from the pages all the real sizes of the cute baby animals included in this big format volume. Ages: 6 plus

Stepping into the CEO role for the first time is a formidable challenge. With high expectations for transformative leadership, how do you create lasting change? This book serves as your essential guide, offering the tools and insights necessary to succeed. The first 100 days are crucial for analysing your organisation and building a robust growth strategy. Even seasoned CEOs will find valuable insights to inspire new avenues for expansion.

The catalogue Friedrich Einhoff. 100+ includes 100 works on paper by the Hamburg-based artist Friedrich Einhoff (1936–2018) as well as 32 further works on canvas dating from various periods of his work. Einhoff’s pieces, which employ a wide range of painting and drawing techniques, all revolve around the central image of humankind and its ambivalent and fragile nature. Anonymous traces of figures, torn off fragments of bodies and facial contours oscillate between concentration and dissolution and speak to an image of humankind that is subject to constant change. In their alienation, displacement and fragmentation, in their isolated juxtaposition, his figures search for their sacrosanct state of being.

Text in English and German.

Since the nineties, Walter Van Beirendonck has been fascinated with masks. They change your identity, invoke a certain atmosphere and have an instant impact. Many artists, among whom are André Breton, Pablo Picasso and even Brueghel, have been influenced by them. Power Mask – The Power of Masks elaborates on the many different aspects of masks: the link between Western art and African masks, the supernatural aspect, rituals about masks, masks in fashion or as a fetish… Walter Van Beirendonck is “a truly engaged visionary and a passionate designer, artist and teacher.” – Jurgi Persoons, fashion designer. “Walter Van Beirendonck succeeded where I have failed; he turned me into a muscle-man instantly. He is a true artist and there’s not many of them around.” – Bono, lead singer of U2 “Come along and take a ride into the crazy helter-skelter, inside-out, upside-down world of Walter Van Beirendonck. Colours and shapes reach psychedelic dimensions to charm and astound you.” – Stephen Jones, milliner. This book accompanies an expo in the Wereldmuseum (World Museum) Rotterdam, from 1 September 2017 until 7 January 2018. Facebook @waltervanbeirendonckfanpage, @wereldmuseum Twitter @wereldmuseum Instagram @waltervanbeirendonck, @wereldmuseum www.waltervanbeirendonck.com, www.wereldmuseum.nl

Men in stately black, women with huge ruffs, children with golden rattles, old women with wizened faces, and self-satisfied artists… These are the main players in just about every portrait ever painted in the Southern Netherlands. From the15th to the 17th centuries, the tract of land that we today call Flanders was the economic, cultural, intellectual and financial heart of Europe. And money flows – with everyone who could afford it investing in a portrait.

Today, these cherished status symbols of the past have largely lost their original significance. But beyond their functional and emotional aspects, these portraits turn their subjects into gateways to the past. This book takes masterpieces from the collection of The Phoebus Foundation and outlines the broad context in which they came into being, peeling back levels of meaning like the layers of an onion. Whether captured in an impressive Rubens or Van Dyck, or an intimate portrait by a forgotten artist, the persons portrayed were once flesh and blood, each with their own peculiarities, hidden agendas and ambitions. Some portraits are very personal and hyper-individual. Others are a little dusty, the ladies and gentleman being children of their time. In most cases, however, their dreams and aspirations are surprisingly timeless and soberingly recognisable.

The Bold and the Beautiful
is an appointment with history: a meeting through portraiture with men and women from bygone centuries. But for those willing to look closely, the border between the present and the past is paper-thin.

Published on the occasion of the exhibition Blind Date. Portretten met blikken en blozen, Autumn 2020, in Snijders&Rockoxhuis Antwerp, curated by Dr. Katharina Van Cauteren & Hildegard Van de Velde with a scenography by Walter Van Beirendonck.

Around 1505 Goossen Van der Weyden, Rogier’s grandson, painted a monumental altarpiece depicting the various phases of Saint Dymphna’s insane life.

This Irish princess, who fled her incestuous father in the sixth century, was beheaded in the Kempen village of Geel. On account of her tragic end and uncompromising chastity, the princess was venerated from that moment on as the patron saint of the mentally ill. From the late Middle Ages, pilgrims flocked to Geel in large numbers to catch a glimpse of Saint Dymphna. They paid homage to the local celebrity in the hope that she would alleviate their mental problems. To this day, Geel is known for its unique treatment of the mentally ill, who are cared for at home by locals.

Goossen Van der Weyden’s altarpiece came into being at the height of Dymphna’s popularity. The masterpiece was intended for the church of Tongerlo Abbey. Today this work is characterised by a remarkable iconography and an eventful history: a panel was lost and the triptych was even sawn into pieces. It ultimately came into the hands of a team of specialists from Belgium and abroad who subjected the altarpiece to a meticulous conservation over a period of three years, a colossal undertaking during which new techniques were used. This gave the conservators unprecedented insight into the mind, and workshop, of an early 16th century painter.

This richly illustrated book is the result of years of research and contains essays by Till-Holger Borchert (Musea Brugge), Stephan Kemperdick (Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen, Berlin), Katharina Van Cauteren (The Phoebus Foundation, Antwerp), Lucinda Timmermans (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam), Patrick Allegaert (Dr. Guislain Museum, Ghent) and many others.

This beautifully illustrated book explores the artistic roots of Flemish identity during the last decades of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th century. Through art, essays, poems, and reflections by artists, academics and collectors, it revives the cultural context of the Flemish Belle Eqoque. Featured here are works by Emile Claus, Valerius De Saedeleer, George Minne and Gustave Van de Woestyne, James Ensor, Rik Wouters and Léon Spilliaert, Constant Permeke, Gust De Smedt, Frits Van den Berghe and Edgard Tytgat.

Since its inception, T.O.P. office has boosted architecture as an uncompromising social tool to persistently question the terrestrial scale and the delicate balance with mankind. Whichever way you turn it, Earth – the orb – is the undeniable alpha and omega for any future stance, action or intervention. An insight Luc Deleu & T.O.P. office have never failed to underscore – or challenge.

Armed with an unsparing but humorous logic, a firm belief in the freedom of the individual, and a persistent commitment to ecology, T.O.P. office continues to hold up a mirror to society. Always unsolicited. Simply because they have to.

For this publication, editors Peter Swinnen and Anne Judong were given unlimited access to the archives of T.O.P. office. The title is also the filter through which to examine the living archive. Which projects – whether conceived in the 1970s or 2000s – retain the intelligent promise of a future plan? And how can they enlighten designers, architects, urban planners, ecologists, cultural workers, administrations and policymakers of today and tomorrow? A future plan in itself.

For this unique book, photographer Servaas Van Belle scouted every corner of Belgium to find just the right kind of shed, always photographing them in the same perfect lighting conditions. And for Van Belle ‘perfect’ means in a haze of fog.

Livestock shelters in meadows and fields are so common in the Belgian landscape and culture that nobody ever pays them any attention. Nonetheless, the countryside offers quite a range of architectural gems. These sheds and barns are the product of man and nature, quietly radiating a poignant if decaying beauty. They come in many shapes and sizes, are constructed from motley materials (often recycled) and exhibit a varied colour palette. Clearly showing the ravages of time, they tell wordless stories that Servaas Van Belle can capture like no other.

Features an introduction by Stephan Vanfleteren.

Text in English and Dutch.

Dick van Gameren, a partner with the renowned Dutch architecture firm Mecanoo, has been engaging in housing design for the past 25 years as part of his work as designing architect as well as his research and teaching at TU Delft’s Global Housing Study Center. In this book, he presents some 40 of his own projects in this field through concise texts and photographs with explanatory captions as well as through plans and drawings. They’re grouped to illustrate seven specific aspects of housing design: Streets and Squares, Courtyards and Patios, Gardens, Halls, the Fireplace, Walls, and Roofs. Together they constitute a multi-faceted catalogue of housing typologies.

In four supplementing essays, van Gameren explores evolutions in residential architecture in the Netherlands. He places his own concepts in context of these developments and expands on what he considers the key factors of good housing design. A particular focus he puts on affordable housing, a pressing issue in so many countries and metropolitan areas around the world.

Dutch Dwellings is an inspiring read for anyone involved in housing design today.

In the autumn of 2023, Museum Mayer van den Bergh invited 15 contemporary artists to enter into a dialogue with its impressive collection. The works of Bram Demunter, Marcel Dzama, Adrian Ghenie, Kati Heck, Leiko Ikemura, Edward Lipski, Jonathan Meese, Ryan Mosley, Muller Van Severen, Tobias Pils, Tal R, Ben Sledsens, Dennis Tyfus, Inès van den Kieboom and Rinus Van de Velde are placed alongside Pieter Bruegel’s world-famous Dulle Griet (‘Mad Meg’), but also next to the portraits of Cornelis De Vos and Alessandro Allori, still lifes by Antwerp masters such as Daniël Seghers and works by Jacob Jordaens, Joachim Patinir and Gerard de Lairesse. A number of artists have also been directly inspired to create new work, including Jonathan Meese, Tal R, Ben Sledsens, Bram Demunter, Rinus Van de Velde and Dennis Tyfus.

Text in English and Dutch.

From the technologically revolutionary to the downright ridiculous, this collection of concise musings documents the varied and often humorous relationships humans have developed with members of the plant kingdom.

These pithy stories span species celebrated as tribal fodder to delicacies elevated as some of our most valued possessions, from the ultimate symbols of devotion and love to campaigns that resulted in genocide, revolt and the shaping of the global political landscape, demonstrating a relationship between humans and the plant kingdom as broad, wonderful, and strange as the plants themselves.

The National Galleries Barberini and Corsini contain paintings and sculptures of exceptional historical and artistic value. Page after page, through the masterpieces of many of the greatest Italian artists from the Middle Ages to the 18th century (Angelico, Raphael, Piero di Cosimo, Bronzino, Lotto, Tintoretto, Cortona, Caravaggio, Bernini, Reni, Guercino, Batoni, Canaletto) the reader can follow the development of art history. The collections also include artwork by Holbein, Murille and Van Dyck, besides a few antique pieces. In addition to the 100 entries, there are descriptions of particularly important elements that are part of the palaces’ architecture, such as Borromini’s spiral staircase, Bernini’s main staircase and the huge ceiling frescoed by Pietro da Cortona.

The sound of Maria Callas, artist and woman.
Maria Callas was one of the most influential and renowned opera singers of the 20th century. Callas 100 recounts the diva’s unparalleled career and epoch-making moments through exclusive images and previously unpublished documents, such as her debut at La Scala in 1950, her 1958 Norma at the Rome Opera, her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in 1956, and her Lucia di Lammermoor at the Dallas Civic Opera in 1959.
Intimate conversations with friends and collaborators, anecdotes and photographs from personal archives introduce the unprecedented journey into the life of the artist beyond the curtain, from her stay in Ischia with her friend Giovanna Lomazzi to her trip to Africa with the writer Dacia Maraini, from her lessons at the Julliard School in New York to the private lessons she gave to the Soprano Sylvia Sass in Paris.
Text in English and Italian.

“Haunting photographs” – The Wall Street Journal. “Henk van Rensbergen is a hero for urban explorers around the world” – Flanders Today. “As an airline pilot, Belgian-born Henk Van Rensbergen was used to travelling the world. But he found a great way to supersize that passion: hunting for the most wonderful, secret, haunting abandoned places” – CNN. While his crew is resting at the pool, pilot and photographer Henk van Rensbergen explores deserted city palaces, overgrown factories or desolate areas of nature, finding beauty in the decay. This engaging book of photographs, a revised edition with new material, lets us wander through abandoned places, including Abkhazia, a break-away region bordering Georgia and Russia and the newest must-visit for every urban explorer.

In this ode to the charms of Paris and Parisian style, Belgian photographer Henk van Cauwenbergh captures the essence of the city’s most iconic venues and its perennially chic denizens. He seeks out the culinary hotspots of Paris and turns his camera on the places to see and be seen. Inspired by the microcosm of Saint-Germain, his Paris is imbued with the spirit of the places where people gather: the casual efficiency of waiters at Les Deux Magots and the Café de Flore, the boisterous atmosphere of Brasserie Lipp. Long influenced by urban and innate style of Serge Gainsbourg, Charles Aznavour, Catherine Deneuve, and Jeanne Moreau, van Cauwenbergh’s Paris is one of seduction and nonchalance, of beautiful women, and the heady emotions of first love.

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen has been collecting Surrealist art since 1965. In something over half a century, what began with a single purchase has now grown into a world-class core collection with works by Dalí, Magritte, Man Ray, De Chirico, Ernst and many others. Surrealism, which started as a literary movement, is not a school, but rather a collective attitude or lifestyle in which automatism, chance and the subconscious are key. The museum’s collection includes paintings, sculptures, objects, drawings, prints and photographs – as well as a large number of Surrealist publications, magazines, manifestos and pamphlets. This dream collection has now been brought together in a catalogue raisonné for the first time.

The catalogue raisonné contains three introductory essays. Sandra Kisters, the current Head of the Collection and Research Department, provides an outline of the Surrealist movement. Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Saskia van Kampen-Prein, explains the acquisition history and establishment of the museum’s Surrealist art collection. Surrealism expert Laurens Vancrevel examines the museum’s unique, often neglected collection of Surrealist publications. The essays are followed by the catalogue, consisting of 108 short texts about the artworks. Most of the texts were written by Marijke Peyser, who was awarded her doctorate in 2008 with her dissertation on the Zodiaque, a circle of patrons around Salvador Dalí. The Duchamp texts are by Bert Jansen, who obtained his doctorate with his thesis on Marcel Duchamp in 2015.

Did you know that Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen was the first public art institution in the Netherlands to acquire a painting by Vincent Van Gogh for its collection? And that 20,562 litres of water are needed for Olafur Eliasson’s installation Notion motion? Or that Gerard Reve once sent an admiring letter to the museum about Geertgen tot Sint Jans’s small panel The Glorification of the Virgin? These and many more fascinating facts can be found in a lavishly illustrated publication featuring more than 150 highlights from the collection.

For over 170 years, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen has been building up a very varied collection of art and design from the Middle Ages to the present day. Best of Boijmans presents the collection as a unity in diversity. Detached from time, place and medium, surprising connections are made between the different areas of the collection. A sculpture of a human figure by the contemporary artist Maurizio Cattelan bears an unexpected resemblance to a drawing of John the Baptist by Raphael; a 19th‐century landscape by Barend Cornelis Koekkoek sits extraordinarily comfortably alongside a work by the Rotterdam artist Daan van Golden. This handy little book takes you on a thematic, visual journey through the collection.

This book, designed and edited by the Italian-Swiss artist Vivianne van Singer, is an ode to Italian sculptor Luciano Fabro (1936-2007), a well-known Informalist artist and one of the founders of the Arte Povera movement. Having been long acquainted with his work and then having met the artist in person, Van Singer reflects upon his untimely death and pays homage to his career in a collection of texts, images, and works. The starting point of the project is a letter Van Singer sent artists, critics, and prominent figures of the art world in which she invited them to submit a work of art or a text exemplifying what Luciano Fabro had represented for them. Among the contributors to this collection: Giovanni Anselmo, Izzo Arcangelo, Gianni Caravaggio, Rudi Fuchs, Von Fürstenberg, Giovanni Lista, Alessandra Lukinovic, Massimo Minini, Giulio Paolini, Margit Rowell, Sarkis, and Ettore Spalletti.

Text in English, German, French, and Italian.

The Belgian architectural firm Van Damme – Vandeputte was founded 5 years ago but their portfolio is impressive, featuring a wide range of architectural projects: new residential constructions tailored to the client’s needs, sustainable and high-quality renovations, interior design with special detailing, offices and corporate sites built with, among other things, great attention to the integration into the surroundings, and restorations of (protected) heritage sites. In this coffee-table book, compiled and designed with the greatest care, the architects present a selection of projects and shed light on the process and philosophy behind their oeuvre. The book is like an extension of their work and exemplifies the firm’s passion and dedication, captured in the amazing photos by Thomas De Bruyne (Cafeine). He specialises in architecture and interior design photography and works for renowned clients and firms in Belgium and abroad.

“This is the very best of Antwerp and the best from here in Oxford.”  The Oxford Times Weekend
“This entertaining exhibition of the 16th- and 17th-century drawings from the Low Countries has energy to spare.”   The Telegraph
This catalogue will accompany the Bruegel to Rubens exhibition held at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford between 23 March and 23 June 2024.

Through a selection of over 100 world-class drawings created by Flemish artists in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, an insightful and comprehensive overview will be given into how these drawn sheets were used as part of artistic practice, within or beyond the artist’s studio. By revealing the drawings’ function, rather than on their attribution or iconography, these sheets will become more fully understood through the eyes of contemporary readers. Identifying how and why these sheets were created will render these artworks more accessible to a wider audience. The three main essays will each deal with one of the principal functions of drawings at the time: studies (copies and sketches), designs for other artworks (paintings, prints, tapestries, metalwork, stained glass, sculpture and architecture), and finally the independent drawings. Each essay will discuss the relevant works within their functional context and compared with other related objects. Introductory chapters will focus on what precisely can be considered a drawing, including its materials, media and techniques, in addition to an attempt to explain the notion of Flanders and Flemish art. Emphasis will be placed throughout the catalogue on how Flemish artists collaborated in creating the most astonishing artworks of their time, unveiling their networks and friendships, as well as their travels across Europe, revealing their international importance.

The exhibition is a partnership with the Museum Plantin-Moretus in Antwerp and will bring together for the first time the most stunning drawings from both the Ashmolean and the Plantin-Moretus collections, in addition to further loans from renowned Antwerp and Oxford institutions like the Rubenshuis and Christ Church Picture Gallery. Many of the sheets coming from Antwerp are registered on the Flemish Government’s Masterpieces List and will not be shown again for the next five to ten years to protect them from fading. Prominent artists featured in this catalogue include Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck, and Jacques Jordaens, among many others. Highlights will include a sketchbook in which a young Rubens has copied Holbein’s Dance of Death woodcuts, intricate pen and ink drawings by Pieter Bruegel, meticulously drawn miniatures by Joris Hoefnagel, portrait studies by Anthony van Dyck, and a rare survival of a friendship album containing numerous drawings and poems dedicated to its owner. Two recently discovered sheets by Rubens will also be included, a design for a book-illustration on optics and an anatomical study of three legs.