Readings’ art & design specialist Zoë Croggon runs us through some this year's design highlights.

Sally Gabori — text by Nicholas Evans, Judith Ryan, Bruce McLean

A vivid monograph on the late Kaiadilt artist Sally Gabori (Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda). Gabori began painting in her 80s and produced around 2,000 works over the course of her extraordinary ten-year career.

Her exuberant colour palette bursts forth from the book, with generous strokes of rose, magenta and lemon streaking the cover. This is a detailed and considered monograph showcasing Gabori’s joyously colourful abstractions.

Re-imagine Bizarre Type

A chunky and funky publication by Sendpoints on the expressive potential of typefaces. How do you make an ampersand sensual? How do you make a title look drunk?

Re-imagine Bizarre Type stretches the definition of the typeface into a form of playful and creative expression. A valuable reference book for artists and designers and a yummy visual treat.

Ettore Sottsass — Philippe Thomé  

Philippe Thomé’s comprehensive monograph on Italian architect and designer Ettore Sottsass looks like a brick of liquorice allsorts and is just as delicious.

Ranging from his bold and bright designs for Olivetti to founding the seminal Memphis group, this publication displays Sottsass’ extraordinary versatility and skill. Including rare photographs from the Sottsass archives and drawings from the designer's notebooks, the book spans his entire career from the 1940s to the 2000s, covering everything from his architectural projects and product design to his ceramics, glasswork, graphics, and sculpture.

Gunyah Goondie + Wurley: The Aboriginal Architecture of Australia — Paul Memmott

Gunyah Goondie + Wurley: The Aboriginal Architecture of Australia is the first and only survey of Australian Indigenous architecture, spanning pre-colonial settlements to contemporary architectural design.

This beautifully assembled publication is built on decades of research and richly detailed with maps, diagrams, and photographs. Disproving common misconceptions about early Aboriginal architecture, this robust publication illustrates the scope and complexity of First Nations structures, spaces, and territories.

Marble & Metamorphosis — Rachel Cusk with Chris Kontos

'Marble, the metaphoric rock, embodies a dark paradox: it is change that produces changelessness', writes Rachel Cusk, on the creation and contradiction of marble. Marble and Metamorphosis is an essay on the history, symbolism, and materiality of marble, accompanied by photographs by Chris Kontos.

A slim and elegant publication for lovers of Cusk’s intricate, crisp prose.  

Shelley Lasica: When I Am Not There — Hannah Mathews (ed.)

Shelly Lasica: When I am Not There is the first monograph to be published on an Australian choreographer.

Published by MUMA and Monash University Publishing as an accompaniment to Lasica’s eponymous exhibition, this delicate publication spans four decades of Lasica’s performance practice. Lasica’s work is underscored by an interdisciplinary curiosity, she is the first Australian dance artist to be signed to a commercial gallery and her work softens the division between performance and exhibition. Beautifully edited by curator Hannah Mathews, this substantial monograph examines the archives of one of Australia’s most thoughtful dance artists. 

Dreaming the Land: Aboriginal Art from Remote Australia — Marie Geissler

Dreaming the Land is a comprehensive survey of Indigenous artists from remote Australia, notably the Kimberley and Arnhem land.

This rich and ample publication profiles 100 artists, detailing their processes, history, and beliefs. With illuminating written contributions from Margot Neale and Djon Mundine, this is an ambitious and valuable resource. 

Letters to Gwen John — Celia Paul 

“Dearest Gwen, I know this letter to you is an artifice. I know you are dead and that I’m alive and that no usual communication is possible between us but, as my mother used to say, ‘Time is a strange substance’; and who knows really, with our time bound comprehension of the world, whether there might be some channel with which we can speak to each other, if we only knew how: like tuning a radio so that the crackling sound of airwaves is slipstreamed into words.”

So begins Celia Paul’s imagined correspondence to Welsh painter Gwen John, whose life and work she sees as parallel to her own. Paul stretches artlessly back in time and space to John, drawing comfort and companionship from her intimate and poetic correspondence. An illuminating portrait of two intensely committed painters whose creative life was built on their own terms. 

Speak the Wind — Hoda Afshar

An exquisite photobook by Melbourne-based Iranian artist Hoda Afshar that observes the customs on the islands in the strait of Hormuz.

There is a belief that the wind blowing through the Persian Gulf can possess people, causing illness and misfortune. The islanders perform an array of rituals to alleviate the harm caused by the wind, documented by Afshar in its surreal beauty and complexity. Afshar photographs the scuplted mountains and the soft tinctures of the desert, materialising the wind and giving it form. A beguiling narrative of ritual, landscape, and the long shadow of colonialism.

Eikoh Hosoe — Yasufumi Nakamori (ed.) 

An extraordinary monograph on the pioneer of expressionistic post-war Japanese photography, edited, designed, and produced under Eikoh Hosoe’s direction. This publication features a broad swathe of the artists works, including his collaborations with infamous writer Yukio Mishima and Butoh dancer Tatsumi Hijikata.

A lush and detailed publication bound in vermillion cloth with exceptional photographic reproductions; an honourable 2022 mention, as it was actually published in the twilight of 2021!