ekphrasis

 series, available now as a bundle of our 27 in-print titles. The 

 series is dedicated to publishing rare, out-of-print, and newly commissioned texts as accessible paperback volumes. It is part of David Zwirner Books’s ongoing effort to publish new and surprising pieces of writing on visual culture.

The ekphrasis Collection (29 books)

Portrait of Chris Ofili, 2017. Photo by Carlos Arias

Jason Allen-Paisant

Text by the studio of Chris Ofili. Poems by Jason Allen-Paisant

A stunning presentation of the acclaimed British painter Chris Ofili’s newest body of work that continues his exploration of Shakespeare’s Othello

Renowned for his rich, multilayered paintings, Ofili here expands his engagement with William Shakespeare’s 

(1603–1604). The transmuting colors and forms of the watercolors and paintings in this volume reflect the complex interiority of the character Othello—his vulnerabilities and his joyful sorrows. The artist also considers these works, which investigate ideas of authenticity, meaning, and selfhood, to be partly self-portraits. As viewers and readers, encountering a subject whose features split and shift with each repeated representation, we are asked to consider metamorphosis, love, the bearing of outside influences on our inner selves, and the force we exercise on the world.

Published on the occasion of a two-site exhibition staged by David Zwirner Paris and Victoria Miro in Venice, the catalogue includes a text from Ofili’s studio and a selection of poems by Jason Allen-Paisant from his 2023 collection 

Chris Ofili: Joyful Sorrow

 was published on the occasion of Christopher Williams’ exhibition Radio/Rauhfaser/Television at Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society at the University of Chicago. It focuses on Williams’ research into a broadcast of Franz Xaver Kroetz’s 1972 stage play Upper Austria and an accompanying panel discussion – consisting of Franz Xaver Kroetz, Dieter Braun, Ludwig Hannover, Dieter Schnabel, and Hans-Georg Frieser – that was cancelled by West German public television broadcaster ZDF in 1973 due to Kroetz’s communist party affiliations. This book publishes, for the first time, a complete transcript of the panel discussion along with contemporaneous newspaper articles, opinion pieces, and open letters written in the wake of the cancellation, and an introduction by Neubauer Collegium curator Dieter Roelstraete. Translated into English by Maximilian Klemens Sänger in conjunction with Williams Studio, this book was edited by Williams and designed by Petra Hollenbach.

Theatre in Review: Upper Austria

 was published on the occasion of Christopher Williams’ exhibition Werbung: A 48 hour display of quality framing materials at Maxwell Graham, New York. The book includes 124 typographic poems by Williams, based on the format of 1970s film festival press packets which contained camera-ready art for advertising. These poems are presented as camera-ready art to be used to advertise the availability of ‘Inklusive’ in paperback, broadcast radio, and long play vinyl.

Inklusive 1972 / Inclusive 1974

A detail from a painting by Oscar Murillo, titled manifestation, dated 2019.

Oscar Murillo in his studio, 2022. Photo by Jason Schmidt

Edited with interview by Alessandro Rabottini. Text by Mark Godfrey, Eleanor Nairne, Gabi Ngcobo. Conversation with Oscar Murillo.

Canvases decorated by schoolchildren across the globe offer humor, hope and joy

This book brings together the archive of 

, a global participatory project initiated by artist Oscar Murillo (born 1986). For over a decade, members of Murillo’s team have visited schools around the globe and invited students to freely write and draw on raw canvas. The elegant volume features a lay-flat binding, dust jacket and richly produced slipcase.

Oscar Murillo: Frequencies

A portrait of Gerhard Richter by Werner Bartsch.

A special edition signed by the artist and featuring a slipcase is available in a limited run of 100 copies.

Tiered pricing:
$200 editions 100–56
$250 editions 55–26
$300 editions 25–11
$350 editions 10–1

Gerhard Richter’s newest facsimile-like artist’s book is focused on a single work comprising twenty-six drawings



“[Richter’s drawings] are of stringent individuality and recognizably by Richter’s hand, not based on their signature style but rather because they make their theme the act of drawing itself, gauging the conditions of drawing.” —Dieter Schwarz

In this new work, Richter combines various elements from a limited set of forms and techniques—meandering lines, broad tonal planes applied with angled strokes of graphite, and passages of smudging, hatching, and erasure—thereby uniting choice and chance in an infinitely generative process. The suite of works on paper from 2023 encapsulates and refines the fundamental principles that have consistently defined Richter’s artistic journey. Reproduced at actual size, the drawings encourage in-depth observation and inspire a compelling reimagining of abstraction. 

Out of stock

Gerhard Richter: Foricano (Special Edition)

Luc Tuymans in his studio, 2022. Photo by Otman Q

Éric de Chassey

Joshua Cohen

Jonathan Crary

Lynne Tillman

Su Wei

This special edition signed by the artist and featuring a slipcase is available in a limited run of 250 copies.

Texts by Éric de Chassey, Joshua Cohen, Jonathan Crary, Lynne Tillman, and Su Wei

Stunning translations of images from the internet and the artist’s iPhone to canvas, Luc Tuymans’s quiet paintings belie an underlying moral complexity.



“Once Tuymans’s muted compositions felt fatalistic; now they appear as committed assaults on our digital fragmentation and the lies that thrive in its cracks.” —Jason Farago, 



One of the most important painters working today, Luc Tuymans pioneered a distinctive figurative style beginning in the 1980s that has proven singularly influential among his peers as well as subsequent generations of artists. Tuymans’s deeply resonant compositions insist on the power of images to simultaneously convey and conceal meaning. Rendered in a restrained and muted palette, the artist’s canvases are based on preexisting imagery from a range of historical, cultural, and popular media sources.

This monograph of recent work reveals how Tuymans’s paintings grasp the mystery, strangeness, and possibilities of contemporary image making. It highlights a body of work that Tuymans has been working on since 2020, bringing together three exhibitions: 

, at David Zwirner, New York. For this trilogy, Tuymans has heightened the contrast and saturation in his paintings, underscoring the urgency of our contemporary global moment. With texts by the novelist Joshua Cohen, the art historians Jonathan Crary and Éric de Chassey, the writer and critic Lynne Tillman, and the writer Su Wei, this publication offers an in-depth, dimensional understanding of both Tuymans’s outlook and his assertion of the relevance of painting in our digitally saturated world.

Luc Tuymans: Nice (Special Edition)

Gaby Bazin

Vineet Lal

Written and illustrated by Gaby Bazin. Translated by Vineet Lal

Available for pre-order. Forthcoming April 2025.

Enter the workshop, meet the typographer, and discover the world of letterpress printing.

 showcases the fascinating evolution and technique of letterpress printing in colorful and engaging illustrations. Armed with little characters made of lead, a typographer reveals the secrets of his craft and its history, from Gutenberg to the present. Gaby Bazin takes readers into the studio, unveiling the enchanting world of movable type.

Following the mission of the children’s imprint at David Zwirner Books, this publication illuminates yet another creative role in the art industry, offering a distinct perspective on the printed medium and the fine art of typography.

Meet the Typographer

Doro Globus

Rose Blake

 series, a collaborative project by author Doro Globus and illustrator Rose Blake, aims to dismantle barriers within the art world, paving a colorful and accessible path for budding artists. Through engaging narratives, hands-on activities, and insights into the lives of a diversity of artists, these books provide a gateway for children in classrooms everywhere to explore their creative impulses and discover the boundless possibilities of self-expression.

 offers young readers exciting insights into the many ways artists work and the reasons why they make art. Geared to children ages 4 to 8, but with appeal for all ages, this colorful and playful book asks: Who are artists? Why do they make art? What materials do they use? What tools do they work with? What forms do their artworks take?

 explores the inner workings of artists and museums. This fun, inside look at the life of an artwork shows the journey of two artists’ work from studio to exhibition. Stopping along the way we meet colorful characters—curators, photographers, shippers, museum visitors, and more!

How Art Works

A scuplture by Yayoi Kusama called Dancing Pumpkin dated 2020

Yayoi Kusama, 2021.  Photo by Yusuke Miyazaki

Lynn Zelevansky

Robert Slifkin

This special edition featuring a slipcase is available in a limited run of 300 hand-numbered copies.

Texts by Robert Slifkin and Lynn Zelevansky

The newest book on the internationally celebrated Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama presents her latest monumental and vibrant work and is the first to explore the experience of seeing it from the lens of the visitor

“My entire life has been painted here. Every day, any day. I will never cease dedicating my whole life to my love for the universe.” —Yayoi Kusama

One of the most influential artists of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, Kusama has created a profoundly personal oeuvre that resonates with a global audience. Distinctly recognizable, her works frequently deploy repetitive elements such as dots to evoke both microscopic and macroscopic universes.

Celebrating the visitor experience, this publication offers an immersive tour of Kusama’s 2023 exhibition at David Zwirner, New York. Illustrating thirty-five paintings, a gigantic sculptural installation of pumpkins, a trio of towering, colorful flower sculptures, and a fan-favorite Infinity Mirror Room, 

is a vivid document with varying perspectives that echo Kusama’s own.

New scholarship by Robert Slifkin considers how Kusama innovates and complicates art-historical traditions of image production and how her art seeks to connect humans with the greater cosmos. An essay by Lynn Zelevansky reflects on her own long-standing engagement with Kusama’s work and the ways in which it, across the decades, can be seen as a record of love in all its complexity: full of humanity, generosity, affection, sadness, and pain.

Yayoi Kusama: I Spend Each Day Embracing Flowers (Special Edition)

By Robert Storr. Edited with text by Francesca Pietropaolo

A scholarly meditation on Reinhardt’s work, bringing together his abstract painting, comics and slide lecture series

 takes as its subject the work of American artist Ad Reinhardt (1913–67). An American abstract painter, he worked in New York alongside artists including Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Willem de Kooning. Renowned art critic and historian Robert Storr curated the award-winning 2013 exhibition of Reinhardt’s work at David Zwirner gallery. This book brings together, for the first time, Storr’s writings on Reinhardt’s abstract painting—for which the artist became hugely influential on the younger generations of Minimal and Conceptual practitioners—his satirical cartoons addressing political and social issues and advocating for abstract art, and his famous slide lecture series. With introductory texts by Storr and art historian Francesca Pietropaolo, this book features an essay previously published in 

 (2013) and a companion text, also written in 2013, that appears in print for the first time.

Focal Points: Ad Reinhardt

Edited with text by Brigitte Kölle. Text by Juliane Au, Hubertus Butin, Johanna Hornauer, Vija Celmins, Gerhard Richter

Contemplating perception and representation with two titans of photorealism

This publication brings together for the first time the work of New York–based artist Vija Celmins (born 1938) and Colgone-based painter Gerhard Richter (born 1932) in a transatlantic dialogue that reveals surprising connections. Their works have been paired together at the Hamburger Kunsthalle in an exhibition spanning over 60 paintings, drawings, prints and objects. This study offers comparisons between some of the artists’ most notable works, including Celmins’ 

. In addition to their thematic similarities and the fact that both have worked with photographic models throughout their careers, Celmins and Richter share an interest in the most elementary conditions of representation. This revelatory pairing invokes questions of reality, visibility and the nature of perception itself.

Vija Celmins & Gerhard Richter: Double Vision

Edited by Russell Storer. Contributions by Genevieve Bell, Russell Ferguson, Anne Imhof, Andrew Meares, Mark Setrakian, and Richard Taylor. 

A celebration of the first work by Wolfson to enter an Australian collection



Artist Jordan Wolfson is emblematic of the time in which we live. As we grapple with our relationship to technology, our immersion in internet culture, and social issues of racial and gender inequality, alienation, and violence, Wolfson confronts us with their images, actions, and effects. His works act as witnesses on the world we are in right now rather than taking a moral position or articulating a particular point of view. They are therefore often uncomfortable to experience, as well as being deeply intriguing in their extraordinary visual power and technical sophistication.

In this publication, the National Gallery of Australia has gathered robust ideas, facilitated discussions, and sought unique perspectives that position Wolfson's major work within diverse contexts, including art history, cybernetics, and media theory. Contributors include Mark Setrakian, Wolfson's principal collaborator; Richard Taylor of Wētā Workshop; Russell Ferguson, a curator, writer, and longtime observer of Wolfson's work; Genevieve Bell and Andrew Meares from the Australian National University School of Cybernetics; and artist Anne Imhof. The publication's creative vision has been driven by the artist and features stunning documentary photographs by David Sims and design by Joseph Logan.

Body Sculpture: Jordan Wolfson

Detail of an oil on linen painting, titled Clear Message, dated 2019.

A double catalogue covering two manifestations at Xavier Hufkens gallery by Josh Smith, who is known for painting series of simple yet highly distinctive visual motifs. Part of the New York-based artist’s ongoing process of image production and experimentation, the paintings are autonomous entities but also part of a larger “family” of interrelated works. ‘Finding Emo’ (2019) featured new paintings and monotypes depicting the Grim Reaper. Following on that was ‘Keyhole’ (2022), in which Smith showed a new series of large-format paintings and figurative monotypes in which he addresses abstraction, expanding on this recurrent theme in terms of scale, palette, and energy.

Josh Smith: Finding Emo / Keyhole

Edited by Glenn Adamson, Dakin Hart and Kate Wiener. Contributions by Ai Fukunaga, Nonie Gadsden, Diana Jocelyn Greenwold, Laura Kina, Leilehua Lanzilotti, Margo Machida, Laura Mott and Katy Siegel

An expansive look at the multifaceted American artist Toshiko Takaezu within the history of postwar artmaking

Toshiko Takaezu (1922–2011) was an American artist whose multidisciplinary work in ceramics, painting, sculpture, weaving, and installation innovatively drew from the natural world, combining expressionist energies with influences from East Asia. The closed ceramic forms for which she is best known are effectively abstract paintings in the round. Her reputation as a ceramic artist, however, has obscured the breadth of her output in other mediums and her role within the larger art movements of the twentieth century. This book provides the first retrospective assessment of Takaezu’s art and life, representing her diverse oeuvre, which spanned six decades, and her hybrid identity as an Asian American woman, artist, and teacher. 

This ambitious volume features essays exploring Takaezu’s biography, her background as a Hawai‘i-born artist of Okinawan heritage, the relationship between her abstract work and that of her contemporaries, the role of cultural exchange in her art, her impact as an educator, and more. Beautifully illustrated with nearly 300 images of artworks and archival photographs, and including an updated chronology, exhibition history, and recollections from the artist’s former apprentices, the book offers a compelling and comprehensive account of this singular artist’s career.

Toshiko Takaezu: Worlds Within

An untitled painting by Noah Davis, dated 2015.

A sculpture by Ruth Asawa, called Untitled (S.175, Hanging Single-Lobed, Four-Layer Continuous Form within a Form), dated c. 1992.

The Artist Journals

 go beyond canonical art to capture the modern and contemporary spirit of today’s most acclaimed painters, sculptors, and other major creative forces. Created in close collaboration with each artist or artist’s estate, these beautifully produced blank books—with their stunning wraparound cover artwork, endpapers, patterned interior pages, and bellybands that transform into collectible bookmarks—are works of art themselves, designed to inspire, collect, and gift to a wide audience.

The Artist Journals Collection

An installation view of Rirkrit Tiravanija's work, Untitled 1992 (Free), dated 1992-2007, at David Zwirner New York, in 2007.

Rirkrit Tiravanija, 2021. Photo by Daniel Dorsa

Edited with text by Emily Wei Rales, Nora Severson Cafritz, Daniel Mauro. Text by Molly Nesbit, Okwui Enwezor, Gavin Brown

Vividly illustrated documentation of the artist’s participatory dining installation at Glenstone

For more than 30 years, community has been central to the work of artist Rirkrit Tiravanija (born 1961). With a keen focus on collective activities and rituals, Tiravanija frequently incorporates elements such as cooking, conversation and art-making into the experiences offered by his practice. This book commemorates Tiravanija’s 2019–20 titular installation at Glenstone Museum. The participatory exhibition featured the serving of fresh soup, an active T-shirt printing factory and an evolving presentation of graffiti that unfolded across the reconfigured architecture of the museum’s Charles Gwathmey–designed building.

Anchoring this volume are texts from Molly Nesbit, Okwui Enwezor and Gavin Brown, offering perspectives that illuminate the artist’s conceptual grounding. The fully illustrated publication also features reflections from staff involved in the exhibition’s presentation, recipes of the soups served and extensive photography of the graffiti rendered throughout the run of the show.

Rirkrit Tiravanija: Fear Eats the Soul

Text by Phong Bui, Leopoldine Core, Torkwase Dyson, Brian Greene, David Grubbs, Alteronce Gumby, Wayne Kostenbaum, Dorothea Lasky, Lucy Lippard, Rebecca Oppenheimer, Lynne Tillman

A critically acclaimed encounter between two American masters of threshold perception and color nuance

This book brings together the work of abstract painter Ad Reinhardt (1913–67) and key figure of the Light and Space movement James Turrell (born 1943). Turrell first encountered Reinhardt at a lecture at Pasadena Museum in 1962, and paid homage to the influence Reinhardt had on his own work through the exhibition 

, held at Pace Gallery in early 2022. As curator, Turrell designed the presentation and lighting concept to illuminate his chosen works from Reinhardt’s geometric, monochromatic “red,” “blue” and “black” paintings. This book documents this immersive exhibition through numerous installation photographs taken under different lighting conditions, accompanied by prose and poetry from a wide range of contributors, written in direct response to the visual experience of seeing the exhibition. Contemporary artists, writers, scientists and poets explore the experiential nature of both Reinhardt and Turrell’s work.

Ad Reinhardt: Color Out of Darkness

A detail of a photograph by Wolfgang Tillmans titled Sicily Morning, dated 2018.

, is driven by a desire to explore and to expose. It navigates joy and heartbreak amid ruin and rebuilding, embodying hopeful defiance in uncertain futures. The songs vary in style, from propulsive and catchy to contemplative, featuring lush instrumentals transitioning into danceable beats. Tillmans's voice, whether growling and confrontational or tender and stripped down, maintains its prominence throughout, serving as the album's core.



Where Does The Tune Hide
Regratitude
Cab Ride
Primal (Intro)
We Are Not Going Back
Morning Light
ADA403
French Lesson
Grüne Linien Feat. FRAGILE
Build From Here
Modernist Survival Unit
There's More That Connects Us
Not Telling A Friend
Language

Wolfgang Tillmans: Build From Here EP

In celebration of one of Kusama’s most iconic infinity rooms

Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama is known worldwide for her polka dots and colorful, immersive light installations featuring unusual and organic forms, such as pumpkins. 

 is a tribute to her beloved and singular practice, with a particular focus on 

 from the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. 

 is a room-sized installation where, as the title suggests, the lights seem almost natural, like fireflies on a quiet summer’s night. The pool of water creates an incredible sense of stillness and the mirrors reflect never-ending images of themselves, creating a sidereal ambience. Space appears infinite, without top or bottom, beginning or end. As in Yayoi Kusama’s early installations, including her 

 embodies an almost hallucinatory approach to reality.

Yayoi Kusama: Present Infinite

A detail of an artwork by Michaël Borremans titled The Commuter II dated 2022

Portrait of Michaël Borremans. Photo by Alex Salinas

Katya Tylevich

Presenting the Belgian artist Michaël Borremans’s newest group of psychologically charged paintings, this catalogue highlights his exceptional technical skill, interest in figuration, and innovative approach to mise-en-scène.

“Everything is a self-portrait. And now I have been painting monkeys. . . . It’s like making a movie.” —Michaël Borremans, 

 showcases seventeen paintings that reveal his interest in exploring surface and artifice. Borremans portrays mysterious sitters—including the titular monkeys, which are glazed toy figurines—and depicts enigmatic scenes that simultaneously invite viewers in and keep them at bay.

Katya Tylevich’s insightful commentary delves into the depths of Borremans’s compositions, connecting the themes and motifs in 

 to those present in previous bodies of work. Tylevich delves into the complex emotional and art-historical registers at play in the artist’s new paintings and maps the trajectory of his practice, observing other instances of repetition and fabulation across his practice. The publication, featuring this essay alongside beautifully illustrated images of the new paintings, serves as the ideal complement to the artist’s 2024 exhibition at David Zwirner, London.


Michaël Borremans: The Monkey

Amadeo Luciano Lorenzato

Brazilian artist Amadeo Luciano Lorenzato (1900–1995) created thousands of paintings documenting everyday subjects in his hometown of Belo Horizonte, Brazil, including landscapes, favelas and the people that inhabited them. This essential monograph on the artist reproduces over 200 works alongside archival documents and photographs.

Lorenzato

A detail from a painting by Katherine Bernhardt, titled Escape from New York, dated 2020.

Suzanne Hudson

This special edition featuring a slipcase and a signed, numbered bookplate designed by the artist is available in a limited run of 250 copies.

Dazzling and playful, Katherine Bernhardt’s paintings highlight her fascination with American pop vernacular, from Pokémon and the Pink Panther to Crocs and psilocybin mushrooms.

“Bernhardt has always been impressive for her ability to combine the immediate, seductive properties of paint with the infectious humor of topical pop culture.” —

Bernhardt’s boundless visual appetite has established her as one of the most exciting painters working today. Thinking about the relationship between art, objects, and commerce, Bernhardt spotlights iconic motifs of cartoons and cultural symbols. Colors and lines bleed and pool together, revealing Bernhardt’s brisk and improvisational process. Monumental in size, subject matter, and vibrancy, her works demand attention.

Expanding on the exhibition at David Zwirner, London, in 2022, this catalogue includes additional paintings and works on paper in which Bernhardt develops her ongoing body of work. With many details of paintings, this significant publication gives the artist’s work ample space to play. Suzanne Hudson’s essay considers Bernhardt’s work from an art-historical perspective and explores the artist’s work and life.

Katherine Bernhardt: Why is a mushroom growing in my shower? (Special Edition)

The newest book from the internationally celebrated Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama presents her latest monumental and vibrant work and is the first to explore the experience of seeing it from the lens of the visitor.

 is a vivid document with varying perspectives that echo Kusama’s own.

New scholarship by Robert Slifkin considers how Kusama innovates and complicates art-historical traditions of image production and how her art seeks to connect humans with the greater cosmos. An essay by Lynn Zelevansky reflects on her own long-standing engagement with Kusama’s work and the ways in which it, across the decades, can be seen as a record of love in all its complexity: full of humanity, generosity, affection, sadness, and pain.



 featuring a slipcase is available in a limited run of 300 hand-numbered copies.

Yayoi Kusama: I Spend Each Day Embracing Flowers

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David Zwirner is an art gallery with locations in New York, Los Angeles, London, Paris and Hong Kong. We present physical and online exhibitions, podcasts, books, and more.