Beautify your bookshelf

Exhibitions come and (sadly) go, but books can last forever. With our exhibition catalogues, you can bring home a piece of the show that touched your heart, expanded your mind and fed your soul. Here are some of our recent favourites and new editions.

Our new major exhibition, Brian Jungen: Friendship Centre, opens on June 20. The catalogue of the same name, co-published by the AGO and Prestel, features illustrations of more than 80 of Jungen’s artworks, as well as hundreds of images from his creative archive including sketches, prototypes, snapshots and personal artifacts. It also includes essays from exhibition curator Kitty Scott and artist Ken Lum among others. Brian Jungen: Friendship Centre will be available at shopAGO starting June 20.

Early Rubens doesn’t open until October 12, but the catalogue is already available at shopAGO! The 280-page book is edited by exhibition curators Dr. Sasha Suda and Dr. Kirk Nickel, and co-published by the AGO and DelMonico Books. Focusing on the evolution of Peter Paul Rubens’s style from 1608 to 1620, it follows his rise from relative anonymity to art world celebrity. Featuring essays that look at the effect of Ruben’s move from Antwerp to Italy, stories told through his work, and analysis about how he managed commissions from famous patrons, Early Rubens ($40) is available at shopAGO.

Vija Celmins: To Fix the Image in Memory just opened on the Level 5 in the Vivian & David Campbell Centre of Contemporary Art and is already a hit with critics. The catalogue, published by Yale University Press, is the first major publication on the artist in 20 years. Featuring 209 illustrations, the catalogue was edited by exhibition co-curator Gary Garrels. The catalogue, Vija Celmins: To Fix the Image in Memory ($78), is available at shopAGO.

Our potent and poetic exhibition Rebecca Belmore: Facing the Monumental moved on from the AGO last fall and recently closed at the Remai Modern in Saskatoon. It will open soon at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal. The exhibition catalogue features moving images of new and in-progress artwork. It also includes 28 of Belmore’s most famous works, such as Fountain from the 2005 Venice Biennale and At Pelican Falls, her moving tribute to residential school survivors. Rebecca Belmore: Facing the Monumental ($30) is available now at shopAGO.

Did you miss Mickalene Thomas: Femmes Noires while it was at the AGO? The exhibition catalogue is the next best thing. It features images of Thomas’s powerful works as well as essays about race, sexuality and how Black women’s bodies are represented. The catalogue includes contributions from the exhibition’s curator, Dr. Julie Crooks, as well as an essay by writer and art critic Antwaun Sargent. Also included are excerpts from esteemed authors, including Alice Walker, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi, Lorraine O’Grady, Jesmond Ward, Edwidge Danticat and Makeda Silvera. Mickalene Thomas: Femmes Noires ($29.95) is available at shopAGO.

Happy reading!

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