The books I bought at the LUMA Arles bookshop

Hi everyone! I returned to LUMA Arles one Monday, a few months after my first visit with Greg. I needed to make some headway on a few projects for Minuit d’Orsay and, as we’d enjoyed the Drum Café so much the first time, it felt like a good excuse to go back. I love working in beautiful places, especially when I know I’ll be spending several hours in front of my laptop.

I arrived at around 2pm, asked whether I could settle in with a coffee and an apple juice, and they said I was welcome to stay. I spent most of the afternoon working on my projects. Once I’d finished, I wandered over to the bookshop to see what was new. Well… I stayed rather longer than planned.

The LUMA Arles bookshop

I had first discovered the bookshop during our Sunday at LUMA with Greg, After seeing the David Armstrong and Maria Lassnig exhibitions, but the selection had changed since then. There were books on photography, fashion, design and architecture, alongside independent magazines, posters and a few objects. Naturally, in a bookshop like this, I want to look at absolutely everything.

I can spend ages flicking through books and looking at the covers, colours, type and layouts. Still, I try to separate the ones that are simply beautiful from those I’ll actually use. Because, let’s be honest, art books can become expensive very quickly. They are part of the decoration at home too, of course — a beautiful book on a table is a lovely object. But if I never open it, there isn’t much point.

The four books I bought

After far too much deliberation, I eventually left with four books:

• Design Stories: New Perspectives on a Collection
• Sofia Coppola Archive
• Marc by Sofia
• Novembre Magazine

Yes, four. But they were the ones I found most interesting and, more importantly, the ones I knew I would return to, either for work or simply because I genuinely love their world.

Design Stories

Design Stories was the first to catch my eye. The blue and pink cover is gorgeous, for a start, but that wasn’t the only reason I chose it. The book explores objects, their histories, how they are used and how they are presented within a collection. It will probably be the most useful for my own projects. I pay close attention to how objects are photographed, colour combinations, the position of the text and the whole construction of a page. It is exactly the sort of book I leave open beside my laptop while I work.

Sofia Coppola's books

I also picked up Sofia Coppola Archive. I love her films, but I’m just as drawn to the world she builds around them: the sets, clothes, bedrooms, colours and behind-the-scenes photographs. Everything feels carefully considered without ever looking forced. The book brings all those archives together. You can open it at any page, find a photograph or handwritten note, and stay there for ten minutes. I also bought Marc by Sofia, this time centred on Marc Jacobs and fashion. The photographs feel far more personal than those in a conventional fashion catalogue. It is closer to leafing through memories gathered over the years than reading a perfectly ordered book designed to sum up a career. That is exactly what I like about it.

Novembre Magazine

Finally, I chose Novembre Magazine for its art direction. The imagery, fashion, type and layouts all take up plenty of space. It can be dense and occasionally a little strange, but at least something is happening. I would far rather have that than a beautiful magazine so well behaved that I have forgotten it the moment I close it.

The books I keep returning to for work

Thankfully, I don’t buy every book purely for work. But when I’m torn between several, I often choose the one I know I can return to for an image, layout, colour or simply an idea. I find them in bookshops, at exhibitions and through the courses I take. I previously wrote about the books Fraser Muggeridge recommended in his Domestika course. It is a brilliant selection if you’re interested in graphic design.

What I thought of the LUMA bookshop

I really like the selection at LUMA. You might go in looking for one particular book and leave with something you had never heard of. That is what I love about museum bookshops too. I had already spent far too long in the Tate Modern shop in London, where, unsurprisingly, I wanted to buy everything as well.

You do have to keep an eye on the prices and exercise a little restraint. So I gathered my things, left with my four books and headed home. The first one I opened was Design Stories, the book that had first caught my eye in the shop. I also wrote about my working day at the Drum Café in a separate post.