From De Panne to Knokke, nothing beats a holiday by the North Sea. People have been flocking to the coast for more than a century, and this richly illustrated book is a true nostalgia trip.
Two hundred original posters from the exceptional collection of Roland Florizoone illustrate, in all their visual power, the golden age of Belgian coastal tourism, from 1886 to 1965.
Art historian Karl Scheerlinck brings these gems of graphic design to life with his clear insight.
Publication accompanying the exhibition in the town hall of De Panne from June 10 to September 24, 2023.

Text in English, French and Dutch.

Hannah Höch (1889–1978) moved between differing worlds: as an editorial assistant with a major Berlin-based magazine publisher, and as the only woman who could hold her own in the German capital’s vibrant Dada scene of the 1920s. Höch broke with the traditions of representation and vision. Her works dissected a world marked by the catastrophe of the Great War and an intense consumer culture, and reassembled it in revolutionary, poetic, and often ironic ways. Höch kept to her artistic means and her poetic-radical imagination, shimmering between social observation and dream world, even in the post-WWII period. Scissors and glue were the weapons of her art of montage, of which she was a co-inventor.
Cutting and montage also shaped film, still a new medium in the 1920s, which strongly influenced Höch’s art: she understood her assembled pictures as static films. This richly illustrated and expertly annotated book explores comprehensively for the first time Höch’s fascination with film and the visual culture of the modern industrial age. It demonstrates how montage evolved in a field of tension between artistic experimentation, commercial exploitation, and political appropriation. A text-collage on the history of montage, in which major protagonists of Modernism and Avant-garde such as Sergej Eisenstein, Raoul Hausmann, László Moholy-Nagy, Walter Ruttman, Kurt Schwitters, Theo van Doesburg, and Dsiga Wertow, have their say, rounds out the volume.

While on a camping holiday, a grandfather and his grandchildren enjoy a variety of fun memory games! Their differences in age and ability to remember will lead them to wonder how memory works and why memory changes with age. Information and explanations about the magic of memory are provided through each activity and game – including the cognitive models for short-term, verbal and visuo-spatial memory processes by Baddeley. Ages 5-7

One of the issues children face from a very young age is bullying. That’s why it becomes very important for them to be prepared and this book comes in help! The first “bullies” the children meet are, in fact, the evil villains of fairy tales. But they can always be defeated. 12 super famous villains from fairy tales: find the stories of Cinderella’s stepsisters or that of the Ogre from Tom Thumb and most importantly how to overcome their teasing and their threats. A very up-to-date topic: these simple yet symbolic stories will help children to overcome the bullies in everyday life. Ages: 7 plus

Not all heroes wear capes, some just a yellow trench! Greta is only the last of a series of eco-heroes who, with their strength and loud voice, brought world’s attention to ecological issues to defend nature and the environment. This title presents some of the most important “eco-heroes”, both men and women, some of a very young age, who battled for a cleaner world or the safety of animals. From WWF’s founder Julian Huxley, to Greenpeace’s, from National Geographic explorers Mike Fay and Michael Nichols to Swedish Greta Thunberg: read their stories and what they have accomplished! Great examples for children to follow: everyone who has a voice and strong ideas can become an eco-hero! Ages: 9 plus

“This book is here to remind long-time movie fans why these important 20th-century icons will forever remain the Fabulous Faces of our time.”
— The Eye of Photography

“Enigmatic, dazzling and fabulous: the faces of Hollywood’s golden age.” — The Times
“A new book pulls together glamorous portraits of film stars from the 1920s to the 60s who could draw an audience with their name alone.”
— The Guardian

“Intense close-ups, staged embraces and smouldering, emotive glances exude star power in this fitting tribute to a bygone age.”
“Star quality emanates from every page.”  — The Lady Magazine
Fabulous Faces of Classic Hollywood brings together some of the greatest portraits taken by leading Hollywood portrait photographers during the motion picture industry’s golden years of 1920 to 1960. Little-seen negatives, long buried in the remarkable and internationally renowned archives of the John Kobal Foundation, have been unearthed and printed to reveal some of Hollywood’s favourite stars at the height of their careers. Full-page images of Joan Crawford, Marlene Dietrich, Cary Grant, Gary Cooper, Greta Garbo, Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, as well as lesser lights including Anna May Wong, Lon Chaney, Lupe Velez and Ramon Novarro, will remind long-time movie fans why these important 20th-century icons will forever remain the fabulous faces of the movie world.

Selected by best-selling author Robert Dance and writer and award-winning film producer Simon Crocker, over 200 photographs are presented alongside an essay by Dance, describing what it takes to become a fabulous face and an international icon.

For the past twelve years, Stephan Vanfleteren (b. 1969) has been working intense hours in his daylight studio at home. Atelier is a collection of that work. Vanfleteren is searching for beauty and meaning, both in daylight and under artificial light. Grey stage curtains are everywhere as a constantly repeating background. The photographer embraces well-known personalities and anonymous people. He inspects and captures the grooves in the face of an old fisherman and the hand of Nick Cave on the same terms as he does a beachcombed bottle. He focuses an adoring gaze on his own children coming of age as well as on impassioned artists in their old age. He sees the frozen corpse of a kingfisher and the body of a twisting dancer, and watches as the sunlight slowly shifts across his stage curtain.
Vanfleteren connects to the traditions of old and contemporary masters but remains faithful to his characteristic style. His craftsmanship and artistic nature make us both witness and party to the splash of incoming light.
With a text contribution by Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer.

Manhattan Masters shows the most beautiful Dutch Masters from the Golden Age in The Frick Collection, New York. The book elaborates the creation of The Frick Collection, brought together during America’s Gilded Age in the last quarter of the 19th century. This book, published to accompany the exhibition, focuses exclusively on Dutch paintings of the 17th century and features outstanding works by renowned artist of that period, including Rembrandt, Vermeer, Hals, and Ruisdael.

Thanks to its location between two continents, Georgia has traditionally formed a bridge between East and West. A Story of Encounters reflects the exceptional art, culture, and history of the country from the Neolithic to the 18th century. Especially in the “golden age” of united Georgia, between the 11th and 13th centuries, the country experienced an unprecedented cultural and economic boom.

This book shows how the turbulent history and the many exchanges along the major trade and silk routes at this crossroads of Europe and Asia resulted in an unimaginably rich heritage, which has remained largely unexposed until now. Refined goldsmith’s art from the Bronze Age, wine – the country’s oldest cultural asset – and original visual arts: Georgia offers many unexpected treasures, which are shown in detail for the first time.

“THANK YOU BYE was born out of a need to put down somewhere what I have experienced over the last five years. Although it gives the impression of a veil being lifted, it is simply a record of my personal experience. The intention, through these hundreds of photos, is to transcribe the absurd, crazy and little-known world of modelling, by means of an unpublished souvenir album of my time spent in fashion. The result is THANK YOU BYE, which owes its name to the phrase uttered by casting directors every time you walk in front of them. It recounts my moments of sadness, my anxieties, my unease, my questions, but also our laughter, our travels, our togetherness, our mutual support. Five years during which I fought not to lose myself. Thrown at the age of 18 at a speed I found hard to manage into a dimension that was not my own, I embrace all the models who ‘pose’ in this book and who, without realising it, helped me to escape. What you hold in your hands is none other than the last chance to prove that I was still worth something. When you turn the last page, you’ll know that I’ve resigned and can finally say that I’m happy.” – Clémentine Balcaen

“With this collection, I attempt to clarify that these are not only textile designs. There is a lot more to it than that: making links to developments in the fields of art, culture and politics is only logical and at least as important. My collection seeks above all to stimulate curiosity when reading (or learning to read) images.” – Marc Van Hoe

The Van Hoe Collection – Grammar of Textiles presents The Van Hoe Collection which mainly consists of textile designs, in part weaves and a number of rare books from the period from 1830 to 1990: a period of great artistic and aesthetic changes. Including essays by Mireille Houtzager – Dutch Textile & Costume historian and Johan Valcke, Hoanry Director, Design Flanders, and others.

Text in English and Dutch.

Stezaker attended the Slade School of Art in London in his early teens, he graduated with a Higher Diploma in Fine Art in 1973. In the early 1970s, he was among the first wave of British conceptual artists to react against what was then the predominance of Pop art.

Solo exhibitions for Stezaker were rare for some time, however, in the mid-2000s, his work was rediscovered by the art market; he is now collected by several international collectors and museums.

Made across a 32-year span, the works in Tabula Rasa unite the central themes in the art of celebrated British artist John Stezaker, from the capacities of collage to the current flow in an age of mass media. This volume brings silkscreens on canvas from the early 1990s and film still collages from the 1990s and 2009 together for the first time. An essay by art critic and cultural commentator Michael Bracewell looks at the connections within Stezaker’s practice, centering on notions of screens, voids and cut-outs.

Federico Garolla’s photography (Naples, 1925 – Milan, 2012) moved hand in hand with Italian history during a period of notable social change after the war. He quickly became Italy’s leading photographer in the 1950s and 1960s during the golden age of illustrated magazines when television was still a luxury for the few.

He belonged to a new generation of photojournalists who knew how to combine elegance and discretion to portray the world of entertainment and communication, as well as the socio-cultural life of their age. Their work provides a picture of a nation, the Italian people, in need of rediscovering its identity as it set about rebuilding the country through a combination of optimism and economic growth. With his unmistakable style, Garolla captured this transformation in all its modernity and also its deep contradictions. He provided an overview of the salient events of the day, taking a sensitive and also attentive look at social realities and contexts. His photographs reflected the liveliness and complexity of post-World War II Italian society, contributing to the image of Italy as it underwent rapid change, ready to embrace its dynamic, bourgeois future.

Garolla witnessed the rise the great fashion houses in Rome, actually becoming a key player in their success as he turned photo shoots into photo reports embedded in everyday life. An elegant narrator, influenced by masters like Cartier-Bresson, he moved beyond mere visual documentation to capture the very essence and spirit of a constantly changing era.

Text in English and Italian.

Costume jewellery is commonly understood to mean fashionable yet affordable adornments made from non-precious material. Originating in in mid-1700s France with the rise of the bourgeoise, the earliest ‘costume jewellery’ mimicked fine jewellery styles. Since then, costume jewellery has always been evolving. From Victorian sentimentalism to the mass-produced ornaments available today, costume jewellery has developed into an artform in its own right. An encyclopaedic study of its history is long overdue. Flush with expert information, identification tips and historical anecdotes, Adorning Fashion explores the development of costume jewellery across the past four centuries. The styles of each era – Victorian, Edwardian, Arts & Crafts, Jugenstil, Art Nouveau, and each decade of the twentieth century – are given individual attention. Production methods are also explained in depth. Alloys and gilded electroplating can mimic silver and gold, while the refraction index of treated glass can, to the untrained eye, be mistaken for diamond.
Adorning Fashion discusses the contributions of a remarkable roster of designers and innovators, including Kokichi Mikimoto, Arthur L. Liberty, Carlo Giuliano, René Lalique, Elizabeth Bonté, the Castellani brothers, Jean Fouquet, Jean Després, Fulco di Verdura, Jean Schlumberger, Salvador Dalí, Miriam Haskell, Lina Baretti, Countess Cissy Zoltowska, Line Vautrin, Kenneth Jay Lane, Francisco Rebajes, Diane Love, Christian Dior, Balenciaga, Chanel, Van Cleef & Arpels, Paco Rabanne, Yves Saint Laurent, Napier, Haskell, Trifari, Brania, Bulgari, Versace and more.

Commissioned by the Water Colour Society of Ireland, this book is the first to chronicle in depth the history of this distinguished Society, established in Lismore, County Waterford in November, 1870 and recognised today as being one of the oldest and most outstanding art societies in these islands. Members have included such prominent participants as Sir William N.M. Orpen, R.A., R.I., H.R.H.A., Sarah H. Purser, R.H.A., Walter F. Osborne, R.H.A., Mildred A. Butler, R.W.S., H.B.A.S., Mainie Jellett, Paul Henry, R.H.A., Evie Hone, H.R.H.A., Tom Carr, H.R.H.A., R.U.A., R.W.S., O.B.E and many others who succeeded in achieving recognition for their work not only in Ireland but on the international stage. The author sets out to trace the historical development of watercolour painting in Ireland, the difficulties encountered by artists in relation to exhibiting watercolours in eighteenth and nineteenth century Ireland. Brief accounts of the establishment of the Royal Dublin Society’s Drawing Schools are included together with the influence of the nineteenth century English watercolour tradition in relation to Irish students, the foundation of the N.G.I, the role of the governess and drawing master, together with the influences which the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art exerted on countless future members of the Society.   The difficulties encountered by women in establishing themselves as either professional or amateur artists in nineteenth century Ireland, the opportunities for training not only in the field of art but in crafts such as wood-carving and lace and the availability to pursue an art academic training abroad all form part of this book. The vital role of Sketching Clubs and Drawing Societies which led to the birth of the Amateur Drawing Society (later to become known as the Water Colour Society of Ireland) are included. Founded by six enterprising ‘Lady Artists’, their largely unknown biographical information is provided here for the first time.   Descriptions of early exhibitions, the aristocratic glamour attached to openings, conversaziones, the day to day running of the Society and the need by many artists, particularly women to transform themselves into professional painters form part of the early development of this remarkable Society. The birth of the nineteenth century exhibition watercolour and the requirement by members to market and sell their work throughout Ireland and the U.K. is described.   The author provides concise biographies of over one hundred W.C.S.I artists from the relatively unknown to the widely acclaimed together with illutrations of works from both public and private collections, the latter, due to the generosity of their owners being illustrated here for the first time.

In the space of a few short years, English and Welsh sparkling wines have become recognised as some of the best in the world. Improvements in viniculture, a changing climate and terroir that often mimics the conditions found in the Champagne region of France have combined with the care and attention of predominantly artisanal makers to make fantastic wine. Travelling around more than 50 vineyards, Sparkling Wine celebrates this revolution. The expert author provides tasting notes, visiting information, and details on the terroir for each vineyard, along with engaging insight into the makers and their craft. This book provides an effervescent accompaniment to any country holiday. It collates directions, maps and opening times, making for an informative and accessible guide. You are rarely as far from a vineyard as you might think, and with Sparkling Wine in your pocket, with its pictures of rambling hills and grape-laden vines, Britain’s vineyards seem even closer still.

This concise yet wide-ranging survey of collectable antique furniture, illustrated throughout in full colour, guides the new collector through almost three centuries of Western Furniture with clarity and authority. Invaluable as a reference tool, it offers collectors the means to identify key features of a wide variety of pieces, ranging from the Gothic and Renaissance period to Art Nouveau, and the beginning of the twentieth century. The book is structured chronologically by century and, within each time period, by country. Existing collectors will find all titles in the series act as a handy and portable reference, and beginners will welcome a reliable, accessible starting point from which their interests can develop. Readers will find succinct sections detailing all major phases in Western Furniture, with full-colour coverage of English, American, French, Italian, German, Austrian, Low Countries, Spanish and Portuguese pieces. The work of important furniture designers is discussed, from the French ébénistes and Chippendale, through key 19th century figures such as Biedermeier, Pugin and Stickley and the mass producers of bentwood such as the Austrian Thonet, to the Belgian and French Art Nouveau designers.

Treen is a lavishly illustrated book which concentrates on pieces related to eating and drinking and celebrates the range and richness of the turner’s art from 1600 to 1900. It covers a wide range of objects for everyday and ceremonial use; goblets to nutcrackers, platters to lemon squeezers, mortars to salts, wassail bowls to egg cups. It discusses the work of the ‘jobbing’ village turner or ‘bodger’, the skilled craftsman’s workshop and the grand Court turner producing complex rose engine turning. It illustrates pieces only to be found in museums and examples you can find today in your local antiques market or fair.

Information is given on where treen may be seen and found and there is practical advice on pitfalls for the collector, dating and cleaning, as well as a chapter dealing with surfaces and patina and one asking for readers’ help in identifying the purpose of some curious objects. This volume will appeal not only to new collectors seeking guidance and inspiration and antique dealers who may come across treen, but also to experts who can compare the objects in their own collections with those illustrated in this veritable feast of treen.

London’s record shop scene is at its most vital and buoyant point since the 1990s, following a resurgence of interest in vinyl over recent years. Tom Greig, who has immersed himself in the world of London’s record shops for close to two decades, profiles and tells the story of 60 distinctive independent record stores, selling both new and used vinyl. Vinyl London is at once a practical guide, featuring maps, addresses, opening times and stock information, and an attractive visual celebration of London’s record shops. The book is organised geographically, and contains the following chapters; Soho; North; East; South; West; Suburbs; Markets; Vinyl Cafes. Also in the series: Rock ‘n’ Roll London ISBN 9781788840163 London Peculiars ISBN 9781851499182 Art London ISBN 9781788840385