Books – The Word Magazine

Neighbourhood life Area codes

Rudi Vervoort on Brussels

Seasoned politician and head of the Brussels Region, Rudi Vervoort reveals his favourite restaurants, record shops and public parks.

Art Exhibition reviews

5 book publishers not to miss at the WIELS Art Book Fair

Five independent book publishers to visit at this weekend's WIELS Art Book Fair.

Art Curator talks

Wim Clauwaert on WIELS’ Art Book Fair

We talk to WIELS' Art Book Fair organiser Wim Clauwaert about running the newly expanded and multi-discipline fair.

Art

New book: Stine Sampers

We talk to photographer Stine Sampers about the release of her book, under the city lies a sea, with Art Paper Editions.

Neighbourhood life Do the right thing

Ten things to do in Belgium this weekend

Our weekly round-up of cultural showstoppers marks its return this week with a 10-strong selection of agenda fillers.

Neighbourhood life Do the right thing

Lo-fi fuzz and frolics. This weekend in Belgium.

Idiot Glee and Krystal Klear come to town, Ghent goes runway and Taschen have a jumble sale.

Neighbourhood life Do the right thing

Woodkid at Botanique and Braeckman at Bozar. This weekend in Belgium.

Koen Theys, Peter Peri and printed words at Be-Part, plus an orchestral outing at Les Nuits...

Art Curator talks

APE founder Jurgen Maelfeyt on The Molem Collective

A limited-run record, a sneaker fiend talking about his obsession and classic hip hop productions. Comes pretty close to nirvana.

Art

Interview: PA/PER VIEW curator Frances Horn

In the run-up to the three-day book bash, we had a chat with the PA/PER View curator about why print is no longer dead

Neighbourhood life Do the right thing

L.A. electronica and art book emporia. This weekend in Belgium

PA/PER View proves print's not dead, plus Nosaj Thing, Hindu Nights, Norio Imai and more...

Neighbourhood life This is Belgium

Belgium’s best art bookshops

We found the hottest spots for the best and most beautiful art and photo books, all for the bibliophiles who covet them...

Art

The year’s best photography blogs, Tumblrs, books and shows

We're casting a wistful glance back at what made 2012 so great à la photography. With Bartolomé Sanson, Alex Salinas and more...

Neighbourhood life

Iconic Brussels bookstore Darakan’s dying days

We drop-in for a browse and a chat as a new (and final?) chapter opens in the Darakan saga.

Art

Christian Aschman

You wait and you wait for a book by Christian Aschman and then two come all at once... the photographer sits down with the Word and opens up about opening up.

Neighbourhood life Do the right thing

The weekend in Belgium 01.03

After a week off and with 4 exhibitions, 3 concerts & a night at Brussels' museums, our selection of weekend happenings is back on track.

Neighbourhood life

Felicia Atkinson and Bartolomé Sanson

In the fourth part of our series on illuminating couple-collaborators, we introduce multi-talents Felicia and Bartholomé whose pooled resources include books and records.

Art

In Sickness and In Health

In this unconventional family portrait, photographer Colin Gray offers you the ability to gaze into the spheres of a dying woman.

The Beautiful Fall

A fascinating read about the bitter rivalry between iconic fashion designers Karl Lagerfeld and Yves Saint Laurent.

Art

Bruce Davidson’s Subway

We take a closer look at Steidl's recent reissue of American photographer Bruce Davidson's groundbreaking photographs of the New York subway back in the 1980s.

Neighbourhood life

Our Christmas wish list

Starting today and up until Christmas eve, we’ll be putting forward two present proposals a day meant to make your end-of-year gift search that little bit easier. Today: A knitted cardigan from Henrik Vibskov and scarf by SPRB.

Neighbourhood life

The shelf: Shedding light

Chinese living, the most dangerous city in America, the disappearance of landmarks in Colorado, colour-coded foreplay and a personal history of the household. Five fine art and photography books that'll see you through the winter months.

Neighbourhood life

The shelf: Pictures speak louder than words

Discover the photography of Wim Wenders, Jeff Wall and Gregory Crewdson or learn about the global rise of denim: Take a look at our newest selection of books we would like to see on your shelves, illustration-focused but more than just to be displayed on your coffee-table.

Art

Culture: The reading retreat

With summer approaching and plans for much-needed rejuvenating escapes slowly taking shape, we wanted to imagine what our retreats would resemble. This year, we’re feeling something entirely removed from civilisation. A pared-down hut lost in the middle of the Amazonian jungle with only but the bare necessities on hand: a typewriter and reading material. Photographer […]

Art

Culture: The scarlet letter

After spending the better part of winter buried in horror fiction, pulp magazines and crime novels, these childhood classics, monumental monographs and stunning photography volumes sure are a welcome alternative. Photographer 354 Photographers Bankrupt (2004) by Phillip Toledano – Twin Palms Publishers Bankrupt presents no foreword nor summary, its subject matter being quite self-explanatory. A […]

Art

The black books

Turn the lights off, and this month’s pick of books suddenly looks more menacing than their authors had intended them to be. You won’t hear us complaining though, as it probably means we’ll get to hold on to them a little longer… Photography Yassin Serghini Drawings – Work comes out of work (2008) by Richard […]

Art

If you don’t read books, you will soon forget how to read

When anything and everything remotely linked to culture better happen behind closed doors, you better hope your library is stocked with the right balance of books. This, we imagine, is what a book shelf would have looked liked in St Petersburg circa 1984. Photography Yassin Serghini Verses and Versions; Three Centuries of Russian Poetry (2008) […]

Art

The Shelf: rough, rugged and raw reads

These are some of the novels and photo-books we had lying about the pool house over the summer. Some were good reads, some were immersing reads, whilst others just made us reach for the ever growing pile of trash-mags, the result of 10 days of poolside dilly dallying. Slaughter on a snowy morn by Colin Evans, […]

Art

Lynch: Saying it without words

David Lynch’s career has spanned over 40 years, directing critically acclaimed films like Elephant Man (1980), Blue Velvet (1986) and Mulholland Drive (2001). What is less known is his parallel and extensive oeuvre of surrealist artwork. The Max Ernst Museum in Germany held a major exhibition this past winter, presenting more than 150 pieces by […]

Art

The Special Showstoppers: At the back of the bus

The nomadic lifestyle of the band on the summer festival circuit is both a blessing and a curse. While such movement adds exponentially to both industry cred and the rock ‘n’ roll allure, the effects on both sanity and hygiene can be much less desirable. Whether struck by stress, boredom, the sense of imprisonment, or […]

Art

Bad vibrations

Music has the ability to move us emotionally and effect us physically, to boost spirits and make a crowd move as one – but this power can have unforeseen, and even unpleasant consequences Writer Hettie Judah, illustrations Marcel Ceuppens War is heavy metal George Gittoes’ documentary Soundtrack to War explores the profound integration of music […]

Art

The unprintables – The shelf

You get in with a preconceived idea. Give it an hour or two and what you had imagined to be the shoot of the decade has changed entirely. For the better… Photography Yassin Serghini, Art direction Melisande McBurnie, Defacto model Lalita Davis For Amazon links: Design Revolution (Thames & Hudson), Remake it Home (Thames & […]

Art

The unprintables – The Shelf

A photo shoot for our book page typically takes Yassin (the photographer) and Meli (the art director, and sometime reluctant model) about half a day to nail down. With the former having somewhat of a itchy finger folly and the latter a seemingly unlimited supply of ideas, we often end up with quite a selection […]

Art

Brussels given the Wallpaper* treatment

With Antwerp having aquired the W* cachet a while back now, it was high time for the global style bible to take a closer look at our capital city, in the shape of its Wallpaper* City Guide Brussels edition, which launches this Friday from 19h00 at Brussels’ Sterling Books. Edited by Brussels-based journalist Guy Dittrich, […]

Art

For the love of paper…

Part two of Arnaud and Adrien’s Japanese trials and tribulations takes us to Jimbocho, Tokyo’s mile-long ode to ink on paper, for a couple of hours of obssessive rummaging. The day spent amongst the shelves had somewhat of a pilgrimage feel to it for Arnaud, an avid collector, connaisseur and “amoureux” of photography books of […]

Art

Polaroid perfection

Upon the release of her book Diaries, Greek photographer Chryssa Nikoleri – who photographed a Greek MEP for our September issue‘s piece on the concerns some had on the supposed benefits of Nano technology – sent us some of the polaroids published in the book. With no clear line of thought, the collection of instant […]

Art

We dig the pig

Christien Meindertsma’s project to discover all the products made from a single pig (the titular 05049) ended up taking her 3 years, and included such unexpected products as wine, carbonless paper, zinc, medicine capsules, paint, cigarettes, toothpaste, heart valves and train brakes. The products were all exhibited at an installation in Rotterdam last year; for […]

Art

Launch of Unit Editions’ first book, Studio Culture

Unit Editions, a young upstart publishing imprit based in London, celebrated the launch of Studio Culture – its first book which delves into the sometimes insular world of graphic designers and their studios – with a party at the big smoke’s Haunch of Venison gallery (aptly billed as a “Launch at the Haunch”). The night’s […]

Art

Design and design – The book of the year

A loosely fitted selection of wide-ranging designs, “Design and design – the book of the year” is a jam packed showcase of design talent the world over. Pulling in everything from products, corporate identities, album covers, furniture, packaging and magazines, the bulky book is a somewhat disordinate day-by-day snapshot of what’s been happening in the […]

Art

Jpegs by Thomas Ruff

In Bennett Simpson’s opening essay for Ruff’s “jpegs“, the Associate Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles remarks: “Jpegs is about the way photographs have become most widely experienced today, as digital images on the Web, compressed and hyper-functionalized…” Presenting a collection of images found on the web, and enlarged by the […]