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Makoto Kagoshima, based in the southern island of Japan, illustrates whimsical and heart-warming motifs on clay making each ceramic a unique, one-of-a-kind work of art. As an avid gardener, motifs such as pansies and roses appear throughout his designs with occasional appearances of butterflies and other fantastical creatures.

After moving to Yatsugatake, the time Kimura spent creating furniture from used construction wood was merely 11 years—from the start of Trax to his passing—yet he produced a multitude of aspiring furniture and objects in that short period of time. On the other hand, his architectural involvement, including Starnet in Mashiko, are rather unrecognized despite the remaining unique buildings. This publication is a summary of the immense amount of photographs and documentation of his furniture, objects, and space-making centered around Trax that Kimura had left behind. Most of the included pictures were taken at Trax, as a space in itself. In addition to text written by Kyohei Sakaguchi, Elein Fleiss, and Tohru Matsushita (SIDE CORE), all of whom are associated with Trax, the book also includes sketches and drawings by Kimura, as well as photographs of the garden and Jomon culture that served as inspiration. Even twenty years after his death, many of Kimura’s works remain timeless, preserved mainly in Trax. This book is a study of Jiro Kimura’s creative journey with Trax, as a gallery and a piece of art.

Gallery Trax started in 1993, at the foot of Yatsugatake in Hokuto City, Yamanashi. Founded by interior designer Jiro Kimura and designer Etsuko Miyoshi, this building used to be a nursery of a closed town school on the grounds of Shounji Temple. It was renovated by Kimura himself, and furniture and objects he created composed the space. Trax is distinctive not only for its location or atmosphere, but also for being an exhibition space for artists such as Jun Tsunoda, Tomoo Gokita, Katsumi Omori, Rinko Kawauchi, Yayoi Deki, and others since their early career. With the wind blowing through and light shining in, the gallery is not a so-called White Cube. The room and the works seem to breathe here; the space itself is a work of art which has embraced numerous art pieces over the years. Since Kimura passed away in 2004, Miyoshi has maintained the place as a gallery, and the number of visitors to Trax, a place where the spirit of Kimura still resides, sees no end.

Richard Batterham (1936-2021) was one of the most revered potters of his time, working for over 60 years from his pottery in Durweston, Dorset, UK. Over the decades, Batterham kept back some of his most successful pots – those that captured some special quality that he valued and wanted to refer to again – building up a personal archive spanning his career. As a collection, it documents a unique life of work and making. With specially commissioned photographs of representative pieces, personally selected by Batterham, and contributions from a group of writers with a deep understanding of his work and its broader significance, this book is an important monograph of the renowned studio potter.

“We could look at Ronan Bouroullec’s ceramic bas-reliefs and see traces of a language we recognize: the silhouettes of familiar objects, the contours of known landscapes. We might be tempted to look at the work as an alphabet of mere things, think of the pieces “objectively.” But as tableaux, the reliefs are not quite right: one has an edge that goes too far, another a circle that’s off-center and about to roll, and still another, a pinkish mass that could topple over.

Bouroullec’s work is most rewarding if we listen as it asks for a new language altogether. Languages have always been born from clay (one thinks of cuneiform seals); it’s easy to believe that Bouroullec is developing his own. At the very least, these pieces – somewhere at the intersection between painting, sculpture, and design – demand new verbs, words like “bevel” and “disintegrate.” (And it’s possible, the works say, that there is nothing so lovely as a beveled edge: the way they taper is like a caress. The way they dissolve onto a background feels digital and also deeply analogue. These effects are both visual and tactile, as in: we see them and we want to touch them.)”

Josh Ascherman

Colours & Shapes is a playful introduction to the practice of Belgian ceramic artist Sigrid Volders. Edited and with photographs by Johanna Tagada Hoffbeck, including sketches and diary outtakes from Sigrid Volders.

Active as a ceramic artist since 2013, Sigrid Volders’ practice is composed of hand-built and more academically thrown pieces. Through the palette existing in her body of works, Sigrid demonstrates an ability to execute instant techniques, freedom, and detachment, which translates in her pieces by a distinct and immediate feeling of honesty and intimacy.

Takuro Kuwata is a radical potter who nevertheless describes his work as firmly grounded within the traditions of ceramics. His focus is to push the potential of his materials, while referencing traditional forms and making functional objects. He is known for a number of experimental procedures, including adding stones to his clay mix so that when fired, they burst or puncture the clay structure, or using needles to catch the glaze of a vessel so that it creates a bumpy texture when fired. He thus leaves the final form of the work to chance, but is careful to ensure that each piece is still functional. Kuwata’s works are also known for their saturated and intense color combinations. The artist tends to favor red, blue, and metallic gold and silver.

Élaboré par l’association Figlinae, ce livre conte des histoires de ceux et celles qui ont travaillé et pour certains travaillent encore la terre du côté de Roussillon.

Ornaments are omnipresent – they can be found on buildings, fabrics, jewelry, tiles, ceramics and wallpaper. Scorned at the beginning of the modern age, ornament has long since returned to architecture and influences design drafts as much as tattoo motifs.
In New Grammar of Ornament, Thomas Weil compares current ornamental objects with the results of archaeological research on ornamental artifacts and concludes that there is an anthropological constant. From the recurring arrangements of stripes, rectangles, triangles and dots and the frequency of the forms of floral ornaments used, he derives a new “grammar of ornament.”
More than 160 years after Owen Jones’ influential publication, New Grammar of Ornament is a new standard work. It categorizes the variety of ornamental forms used worldwide and for the first time places them in a major art and cultural-historical context.

The pieces shown in this book are from the personal collection of Hideyuki Oka (1905–1995), a master of Japanese graphic design and advertising. Traditional Japanese packaging, known as ‘tsutsumu’, uses natural materials like bamboo, rice straw, hemp twine, paper, ceramics, and leaves. The familiar Japanese aesthetic sense and its resonance through traditional culture infuses even these everyday objects, all of which seemingly transcend their obvious function. The simple beauty and craftsmanship on display is remarkable, from bright green candies in a hand-hewn pine box to a ceramic orange designed to hold citrus miso.

A “bio-monographic” catalogue illuminating the approach of the artist, sculptor and ceramist Valentine Schlegel, whose practice, intimately linked to her daily life, responds to a certain logic: that of creating her own living conditions. Realized by the artist Hélène Bertin following a research on Valentine Schlegel, edited by Hélène Bertin and Charles Mazé & Coline Sunier.

Edition of 16 comprising a first edition book with one of three inkjet prints handpainted with acrylic by Vasantha Yogananthan (21 x 25 cm, signed and numbered on the reverse), housed together in a 32 x 26 cm clamshell box, handmade and handpainted by La Reliure Contemporaine (Morina Mongin). Each box is unique and may look slightly different from the picture.

Edition of 16 comprising a first edition book with one of two inkjet prints by Vasantha Yogananthan (21 x 25 cm, signed and numbered on the reverse), housed together in a 32 x 26 cm clamshell box, handmade by La Reliure Contemporaine (Morina Mongin).
Each box is unique and may look slightly different from the picture.

100% organic cotton limited edition of 200 « book bag » designed by Iris de Moüy to celebrate Chose Commune’s 5th anniversary.

Iris de Moüy’s lines create worlds where playfulness meets poetry. Animals and humans coexist in a dream world.

The Coup de Crayon collection offers the artists in the fields of painting, drawing or collage a “carte blanche” to imagine a series as a book. “Do Insects Play” is the first volume of the collection.

With her open and spontaneous line, Iris de Moüy draws emotion. In “Horses Are Blue” she creates a world filled with mysterious creatures and extraordinary people. These whimsical figures encounter, dare and embrace across the pages, inspiring a letting go.