This is not another treatise on the heroic nature of the Jeffersonian imagination. Rather, it offers another reading generated by Joseph Campbell’s reluctant hero in The Hero of A Thousand Faces as offered by Jeffrey Hildner in his prescient Epilogue Labyrinth R.U.N. It is rather weaving fictions, constructing dialogues, (Rashomon) again and again on Jefferson as boy/man, as adolescent, as dreamer and instrumental explorer of here and there, close at hand and worlds long, long ago and far, far away. This is a collection of meanders, speculations, fog-bound as well as iridescent.

The fact may be that Jefferson was a farmer and politician, but highlighted here was that at thirteen he was an adolescent first, orphaned sooner than later as was common at the edge of the Arcadian Wild, as were Romulus and Remus, but custodian of terrains, knowledge and human energy. He was a Surveyor, Nomad and given his penchant for oculi and mirrors, a certifiable Lunatic.

This is a book on American Pragmaticism and self-evident truths in a new culture of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness rooted in the promise of Eden and the enduring resistance of Jerusalem, articulated by William McClung in The Literary Legacy of An Architecture of Paradise. We aligned ourselves with contemporary philosophical debates benchmarked by Andre Gide and Bruno Latour which posit that previously called Ancient if not Archaic belief systems might hold self-evident truths coincidental with contemporary survival systems of sustainability once called common sense, grounded in the recurrent dualities of Architecture.

This is a philosophical work framed on epistemological and ethical questions, sustained by Joseph Campbell in The Hero of a Thousand Faces. It also seeks to identify the contemporary vitality of American cultural history and contemporary topographic landscapes.

Translations examines the architecture and artwork of Sigrid Miller Pollin. A Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and a professor of architecture at the University of Massachusetts, Miller Pollin has created a rich body of work, from residential and academic buildings to furniture and artwork inspired by the natural world. Her design sense and deep understanding of space and colour combine to present an oeuvre worthy of study. As a book about a practicing female architect who has successfully woven family, work, and art into a creative life, it offers inspiration, anecdotes and examples for women entering the professional world of architecture.

The Soviet Union has left a vast heritage in interior design that is largely unknown in the West. Other than architecture and graphic or product design, interior design from the Soviet era has not yet been thoroughly investigated. For the first time ever, this book offers a comprehensive survey of the country’s interior design culture between revolutionary avant-garde and late Soviet modernism. Drawing on archives that were inaccessible until recently and featuring a wealth of previously unpublished material, it documents the achievements of seven decades in the former socialist empire.

Soviet design is often discredited as massive, non-ergonomic and monotonous. Yet a remarkable variety of original styles have emerged behind the iron curtain. The 1920s were marked by bold exploration and experiments at Vkhutemas and by constructivism, rationalism, and suprematism. Early in Stalin’s reign constructivism was heavily criticised and post-constructivism and Soviet neo-classicism appeared alongside what became known as ‘agitational furniture’, inspired by the regime’s propaganda. The 1930s brought Soviet Art Deco and eventually Stalinist Empire, which has produced some of the Soviet Union’s most iconic buildings. In the late 1950s, after Stalin’s death, the last Soviet ‘big style’ originated modernist and functionalist furniture, mass-produced to fit the small apartments in the Khrushchyovka multi-unit housing developments that were built in cities on a large scale. The 1960s mark the Golden Age of Soviet interior design, showing again influences by the early Soviet Avant-Garde and the Bauhaus, while most of the visionary work of a new generation of designers in the 1970s and 1980s remained unrealised.

Richard Manion Architecture creates distinctive residences and estates with a respect for traditional forms and historic imagery adapted to modern living. The curated selection of rarely published projects in this second volume of RMA’s work, Streamlined, demonstrates the firm’s signature classicist style, which draws upon traditional and streamlined classical, regional, and contemporary influences to reflect authentic details, proportions, and a sophisticated sense of place for the 21st century.

In this book, the firm’s focus is on the integration of modernism within an overall framework of simplicity and restraint, discretion and harmony. Academic studies of European modernism, with its visionary approach and embodiment of the machine age, have come back to inspire, but with the understanding that many of its roots can be traced back to the heritage of classical design principles. This exquisite, fully illustrated volume showcases RMA’s goal to unite ideas about tradition, history, and modernity in a synergy and explores the meaning of shared architectural imagery and heritage for our time.

“Moonwatch Only is certainly one of the best books ever written about a single watch model.” – William Massena – Timezone.com “It is an indescribable reference work and a true must-have for every Speedmaster collector.” – Forbes “This book sets a new standard. Not only for books on the Omega Speedmaster, but for watch books in general. I’ve never seen anything like it, and believe me when I tell you that I could fill an impressive sized wall with books on watches. Authors of other books or publishers should take a look at Moonwatch Only as well to see how it should be done.” – Robert Jan Broer – FratelloWatches “The OMEGA Speedmaster Professional – the Moonwatch – has done things that no other timepiece has done and it’s been worn in places that only a few human beings have been.” – Captain Eugene Cernan, ‘Last man on the moon’ There are very few timepieces in the world that deserve a definitive and comprehensive book such as this one. The OMEGA Speedmaster Professional Moonwatch is one of them. Initially designed for automobile racing teams and engineers, the Omega Speedmaster embarked on a very different trajectory when NASA chose it to accompany astronauts heading for the Moon in 1965. Its involvement in the space adventure has propelled the Moonwatch to the top of the list of celebrated timepieces. After years of research and observation, the authors present a complete panorama of the Moonwatch in a systematic work that is both technical and attractive, making it the inescapable reference book for this legendary watch. This third edition has been enriched with numerous new features including a 16-page gallery of astronauts and their Speedmaster, QR codes to extend your exploration and a detailed story of a vintage Speedmaster.

Temporality and age are inherent in every object and creature and, depending on one’s outlook, may transcend to infinity. How can this be imagined? What goes beyond it? Swiss filmmaker Christoph Schaub sets out for a personal journey through time and space. He starts in his childhood, when his fascination with sacred buildings began, and also his wondering about beginnings and ends. In dialogue with architects Peter Zumthor, Peter Märkli, and Alvaro Siza, artists James Turell and Cristina Iglesias, and musician Jojo Mayer, Schaub explores the magic of sacred spaces, a term that for him represents much more than just churches.

Architecture of Infinity traces spirituality in architecture and fine arts as well as in nature, and even over and above the limits of thought. The lightly floating camera immerses the viewer in somnambulistic images, taking him on a sensual and sensing journey through vast spaces, guiding his eye towards the star-spangled sky’s infinity and the depths of the ocean. Past and present, primeval times and light years, it is all there.

The running time of the film is 85 minutes, and the DVD is accompanied by a 32-page booklet with text in English and German.

As the world speeds up, as technology takes over, it is worth remembering how we used to live. This three-book series is a nostalgic hymn to an era when life was slower: a meandering ramble through the British countryside by bicycle, automobile and train.

Take an amble across the countryside with this book, which celebrates a time when our railway network was more than a permanently delayed omnishambles of overcrowded and overpriced trains. Country stations and lonely halts, milk churns and coal yards, enamelled signs and platform clocks – these are the fragments of a more leisured age, from a time when the local station was a well-loved institution at the heart of so many communities. Here are gas-lit rural stations, oil lamps on level crossing gates, enamelled signs, waiting room fires, timetables and luggage labels. Less a clattering, steamy ride into the past than a touchstone for joyous memories of such a vital and well-loved institution, The Slow Train harks back to a more measured, considered era.

Felix Vallotton (1865-1925), born in Lausanne (Switzerland), went to Paris in 1882 to study at the Academie Julian among the founders of the Nabis group and made the French metropolis his home for the rest of his life. During his membership of the Nabis 1892-1901 he mainly worked as a printmaker, developing a very distinctive style in woodcutting. After breaking with the Nabis in 1901, Vallotton turned more to painting, soon to become a major figure of French post-impressionism and the most important Swiss symbolist artist. He also wrote plays and a novel. His naturalism, with an eerie note at times, is close to a literary one and the symbolist language of his pictures puts him close to psychoanalyis. This book presents Vallotton from today’s point of view not just as a symbolist painter and printmaker of great accomplishment at the beginning of the modern age, but also as an intelligent observer of his time who exposed bourgoise conventions critically and ironically.

Hans Josephsohn, born in 1920 in Königsberg (now Kaliningrad, Russia), came to Zurich via Florence as a Jewish immigrant in 1938. In more than six decades he has created a sculptural oeuvre that transcends the fashions and fads of the art world and yet testifies to his incomparably sensitive understanding of our age. This comprehensive monograph introduces the reader to Josephsohn’s approach, outlines his development and places him within the development of twentieth-century art. The book shows the fascinating uniqueness and the tense calm of an oeuvre that offers many young artists an attitude to art that mirrors their own concerns.

Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675) is world-famous for his scenes of daily life, such as a kitchen maid pouring milk, a woman having a music lesson, or a lady writing a letter. However, when Vermeer began painting around the age of 21, he focused primarily on traditional subjects derived from the Bible and classical mythology. Not only do these early works differ greatly from his later paintings in terms of subject matter, they also differ in style. This publication deals with the young Vermeer’s training and artistic development. It also gives an account of the rediscovery of his early work in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The exhibition unites three paintings from the beginning of Vermeer’s artistic career: the Mauritshuis’ Diana and her nymphs of c. 1653-1654, is joined by Christ in the house of Martha and Mary (c. 1655) from the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh, and The Procuress (1656) from the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen in Dresden. These three paintings afford an image of the artist seeking his own style. All three paintings have recently been restored. Within this context, the differences between Johannes Vermeer’s early and late work also emerge clearly. The Young Vermeer is organised in collaboration with the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden and the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh.

When the American art world turned toward abstract art and action painting, Francis Cunningham remained focused on figurative art and the human form. His interest never waned. This book chronicles his development over an astonishing seven decades. Presented in a nonlinear order, the arc of his work is there for the discerning eye to see. Landscapes, still life, and human forms are interrelated. Cunningham’s work reveals the connection between abstraction and representation. Their coexististence is the material and subject of this book, disclosing a new understanding of American painting by a living artist.

Accompanying over 180 high quality reproductions, the artist’s many facets are explored in essays by art historians and art critics, including Christopher Knight, Edward Lifson, John Walsh, and Valentina De Pasca, as well through the reminiscences of one of his life models, Regina Hawkins-Balducci.

Cunningham attended the Art Students League of New York, where he studied drawing and anatomy with Robert Beverly Hale and painting with Edwin Dickinson. He became an influential master instructor, cofounding the New Brooklyn School of Life Drawing, Painting and Sculpture (1977-1983) and the New York Academy of Art in 1983. At his current age of 90, he continues to paint in his studio in Manhattan and in the rural western part of Massachusetts, known as the Berkshires.

This is the first monograph devoted to his work.

Following the success of Magic Moments in Florence, Adriana Silvestri explores another of Italy’s historic cities. Her kaleidoscopic images and subtle variations on a theme offer new perspectives on what, in the age of mass tourism, have become all too familiar sights, capturing the true essence of the “Eternal City.” Her eye zeroes in on all kinds of small details, there are even the stray cats of the Colosseum and the Fori Imperiali, whose long shadows stand out against the purple of cardinals’ robes and the white marble of classical Rome.