Books on Arthur Jafa, Thomas Demand and Naoto Fukazawa win Art Book Awards

Seven books have been named the first ever winners of the Richard Schlagman Art Book Awards, a new prize launched by Whitechapel Gallery and the Authors’ Club for publications on art, architecture and design. The books have been published in the last year, in English, and were chosen for their exciting concepts, subjects and designs.

The winners were:

– Best book on contemporary art: Thomas Demand: The Complete Papers by Christy Lange (MACK)
– Best contribution to art history: Dubuffet and the City: People, Place, and Urban Space by Dr. Sophie Berrebi (Hauser & Wirth)
– Best book on contemporary architecture: Balkrishna Doshi: Architecture for the People by Jolanthe Kugler, Khushnu Panthaki Hoof and Meike Wolfschlag (Vitra Design Museum and the Wüstenrot Foundation, in collaboration with the Vastushilpa Foundation)
– Best contribution to architectural history: Toward a Concrete Utopia: Architecture in Yugoslavia 1948-1980 by Martino Stierli and Vladimir Kulić (Museum of Modern Art New York)
– Best book on contemporary design: Naoto Fukasawa: Embodiment (Phaidon)
– Best contribution to design history: Victor Papanek: The Politics of Design by Mateo Kries, Amelie Klein and
Alison J. Clarke (Vitra Design Museum and the Victor J. Papanek Foundation, University of Applied Arts Vienna)
– Outstanding artist’s book: Arthur Jafa: A Series of Utterly Improbable, Yet Extraordinary Renditions (Serpentine Galleries, the Store X, Julia Stoschek Collection, and Koenig Books)

The overall prize for Best Book Design was given to Hauser & Wirth’s Dubuffet and the City. You can view the full shortlist here.

A statement from the Whitechapel Gallery says the awards highlight “the fertile relationship between the art world and publishing,” and “acknowledge the importance of books in the dissemination of knowledge and learning about art. They also celebrate the innovation and verve of contemporary graphic design and print production.”

Astrid Stavro at Pentagram designed the award’s visual identity, which she says encompasses “easily-recalled elements from the art, design and printing worlds".