13 ART AND DESIGN BOOKS THAT SHAPE MY CREATIVE WORLD.
I have a small confession to make. I am slightly obsessed with books. All the books. My husband says I have a book problem, but I can think of worse things. Who needs designer shoes and handbags when you can live life surrounded by books. They are my constant companions, stacked on tables, tucked into shelves, scattered across the studio. At some point, I may need a library for all of them.
Over the years, many of my books have shaped how I see and how I make. I return to them whenever I need inspiration or a reset, flipping through pages that feel familiar and new at the same time. Sharing these feels a little like introducing you to the artists and images that have taken up residence in my head. Here are thirteen of my favorite art, design, creative books, the ones I come back to again and again. Okay, there are actually more than thirteen, but let’s start here.
Artists and retrospectives.
1. Picasso and Françoise Gilot: Paris–Vallauris 1943–1953 curated by John Richardson at Gagosian
This book feels like stepping inside a creative partnership at a very specific moment in time. I’m drawn to the intimacy of it, the sense of witnessing process and relationship at once. Their relationship is fascinating and complicated. It reminds me that art is never made in isolation.
2. Picasso and the Art of Drawing by Christopher Lloyd
Whenever I open this book, I’m reminded how foundational drawing is to everything. There is a directness and freedom in Picasso’s lines that feels both disciplined and playful. It loosens my hand just by looking and reminds me that the simple practice of drawing underlies even abstract art.
3. Cy Twombly: A Retrospective by Cy Twombly and Kirk Varnedoe
Twombly’s work always brings me back to the freedom of gesture and mark making. There is something raw and lyrical in his surfaces that feels almost like handwriting. This book resets my eye when I start to overthink and returns me to the language of marks.
4. Henri Matisse: A Retrospective by Henri Matisse
Matisse is pure clarity and boldness. The color and shape relationships in this book feel endlessly modern. It encourages me to simplify and trust strong visual decisions.
5. Van Gogh: The Draughtsman by Vincent Van Gogh Museum
This one is about commitment to practice. The drawings reveal a relentless study of the world through line. It’s a reminder that mastery is built slowly over years, one observation at a time.
6. Life Is Paradise: The Portraits of Francesco Clemente by Francesco Clemente and Vincent Katz
There is an emotional intensity in Clemente’s portraits that pulls me in every time. They feel psychological and symbolic without being heavy handed. I return to this book when I want to reconnect with feeling in imagery.
7. Goodbye Picasso by David Douglas Duncan
This iconic book carries a different energy, more documentary and personal. It captures moments around Picasso’s later years with a sense of closeness. It feels like witnessing history from just inside the room.
Interiors and atmosphere.
8. François Halard 3: New Vision by Francois Halard
Halard’s photographs are studies in mood and space. The way he captures interiors feels painterly and intimate. This book feeds my love of atmosphere and composition.
9. François Halard: 56 Days in Arles by François Halard
This one feels like a visual diary. There is a slowness to it that invites lingering. It reminds me that place and light are collaborators in creative work, and his use of Polaroids always inspires me.
10. The Space That Keeps You: When Home Becomes a Love Story by Jeremiah Brent
This book connects environment and inner life in a way I deeply relate to. It speaks to how spaces hold us and influence how we feel and think. I see echoes of my own relationship to home and studio in its pages.
Creative life and process.
11. In the Company of Women: Inspiration and Advice from over 100 Makers, Artists, and Entrepreneurs by Grace Bonney
I love the breadth of voices in this book. It feels like sitting in conversation with many different creative lives. It’s grounding and expansive at the same time.
12. The Work of Art: How Something Comes from Nothing by Adam Moss
This book opens up the behind the scenes of how creative work actually comes into being. It demystifies process without flattening it. I find it both reassuring and energizing.
13. The Thing Quarterly: Brian Roettinger Reproductions by Brian Roettinger
This publication sits somewhere between object and book. It plays with form and presentation in a way that keeps me thinking about what a book can be. It’s a reminder that format itself is part of the artwork.
These books live in constant rotation around me, proof that my so called book problem is still going strong. I pull them down when I need inspiration, reassurance, or simply the pleasure of looking. They are part of the visual language that surrounds my work and my life, a conversation between artists that I get to step into whenever I open the covers.
I’m always curious which books other people return to, the ones that shape how they see the world. Inspiration is rarely solitary. It’s something we gather and pass along, one book at a time.
xx,
Michel
