In Part 1, we explored books that brought us closer to the minds and worlds of great artists. Their writings reveal a side of creativity that often remains unseen: the private thoughts, personal reflections, and questions that exist before an idea becomes a finished artwork. Through journals, letters, memoirs, and essays, we get to see how artists observed the world around them, what influenced them, and what they were trying to understand through their work.
These books go beyond the artwork itself. They bring us closer to the person behind it.
One of the few books Tove Jansson wrote for adults, Art in Nature feels deeply connected to the life she created for herself: a quiet existence on a remote Finnish island, surrounded by nature, creativity, and the person she loved. The book offers a rare look into the everyday reality of an artist’s life: the beautiful moments, the frustrations, the unexpected turns, and the relationships that shape the creative process.
It is charming, thoughtful, and wonderfully unpretentious, much like Jansson herself. A small window into an artist’s world, and one of those hidden gems for anyone drawn to creative lives, quiet stories, and the beauty found outside the spotlight.
Sculpture is one of the oldest ways humans have tried to understand and transform the world around them. Long before written history, people were already shaping wood, clay, stone, and metal into forms that reflected what they saw, believed, and imagined.
In Shaping the World, sculptor Antony Gormley and art critic Martin Gayford explore the role sculpture has played across cultures and centuries. Moving through history, philosophy, and artistic ideas, the book looks beyond objects and materials to examine why humans have always felt the need to create with their hands.
Across more than five thousand years, Scottish art has reflected the landscapes, traditions, and changes that shaped the country. In The Story of Scottish Art, artist and broadcaster Lachlan Goudie explores how creativity became part of Scotland’s cultural identity.
From the ancient symbols carved into Kilmartin Glen to the contemporary work emerging from Glasgow’s art scene, the book follows the evolution of Scottish expression through painters, sculptors, and craftspeople.
Yayoi Kusama: 1945 to Now is one of the most comprehensive studies of the artist’s work to date, bringing together key pieces from across her long and influential career. Alongside her most recognizable artworks, the book also includes personal correspondence and interviews, some published here for the first time, offering a more direct view into her thinking and artistic journey.
Structured around six themes, it presents Kusama’s practice in a way that is both accessible and visually rich, tracing how she has moved between global contemporary art and the cultural roots of her native Japan.
Barbara Hepworth is widely regarded as one of the most important sculptors of the twentieth century, and Art & Life offers one of the most complete portraits of her practice and personal world. Alongside her sculptural work, the book traces the wide range of influences that shaped her thinking, from dance and music to poetry, science, and contemporary politics, showing how these elements came together in a coherent artistic vision.
Her work is placed in context through public statements and private correspondence, allowing the reader to move between the finished pieces and the voice of the artist behind them.
When looking at Van Eyck’s portraits, panels, and group scenes, it is easy to forget they were painted almost six hundred years ago. Powerful, vivid, and precise, his work reflects a level of observation and technical innovation that helped redefine painting in the early history of Western art.
This catalogue, created to accompany the 2020 exhibition in Ghent, brings together his major works alongside essays by leading experts, as well as historical letters and sources. It aims to offer a clearer view of the artist beyond the myths that have grown around him, placing his practice in a broader historical context.
