15 Lavish TASCHEN Books For Every Type of Art Lover in Your Life

Image via Complex Original

Editor: Reuel Golden
Release date: Nov. 8, 2013
Price: $499

Before you balk at the $499 price tag, consider this: on December 3rd, Christie's auctioned off a copy of this very same three-volume set, a photo commemoration of National Geographic's extraordinary 125-year history, for a whopping $13,000. Okay, so that copy was one of only five sets signed by more than 40 of the magazine's most celebrated photographers, but flip to the middle, and both books look the same. Sort of makes $499 sound like a bargain!

Author: Hugh Hefner
Release date: Oct. 1, 2013
Price: $150

A six-volume photo book celebrating 60 years of Hugh Hefner’s legendary nudie mag may not go a long way toward your whole “I read Playboy for the articles” argument. But this extensive photographic history of the magazine, written by Hef himself, offers more than just sexy centerfolds (though there are plenty of those). An autobiography of sorts, it also features tons of never-before-seen photos and artwork (including a couple of childhood drawings) from Hefner’s personal archives, plus some of the magazine’s most memorable articles (yes, articles) from the likes of Gore Vidal, Norman Mailer, Ian Fleming, and Ray Bradbury.

Editors: Cees W. de Jong, Alston W. Purvis, and Jan Tholenaar
Release date: Sept. 15, 2013
Price: $59.99

Typography nerds, rejoice! Finally there’s a two-volume compendium that will allow you to visually trace the world history of fonts over the course of more than 300 years, from 1628 to 1938, a time frame which saw the evolution of such exciting inventions as italic, bold, semi-bold, and narrow fonts. William Caslon, Fritz Helmuth Ehmcke, Eric Gill, and Paul Renner are just a few of the type pioneers given the superhero treatment.

Authors: Owen Edwards and Steven M. L. Aronson
Release date: Aug. 1, 2013
Price: $69.99

Peter Beard is sort of the Zelig of the art industry. Though he is perhaps best known for the photographic attention he has paid to endangered animals, he has also had creative collaborations with key figures in the worlds of art (Francis Bacon, Salvador Dalí, Andy Warhol), literature (Truman Capote), music (the Rolling Stones) and fashion (Iman). The original edition of this book—published in two volumes (versus one) in 2006 and signed by Beard—sold out immediately. Hint, hint.

Author: Hans Christian Andersen
Release date: Nov. 15, 2013
Price: $39.99

Fairy tales aren’t just for kids, at least not when they’re in the hands of Hans Christian Andersen, the man behind your favorite childhood morality plays, including The Little Mermaid, The Ugly Ducking, and The Princess and the Pea. Relive those golden years of your youth with this all-new tome, jam-packed with stories, illustrations, little-known facts about the man himself, and historical analyses of each of Andersen’s tales.

Editor: Lélia Wanick Salgado
Release date: May 31, 2013
Price: $4,000

First things first: if you can afford the $10,000 edition, we say go for it. Otherwise, you'll have to settle for the less elaborate $4,000 set of books. Which is a small price to pay, really, when you consider the work that went into Sebastião Salgado’s "GENESIS" project. Namely: eight years of traveling to the world's most pristine places—and the people and animals that inhabit them—to rediscover the world in its most natural state.

Author: Valerie Steele
Release date: Dec. 31, 2012
Price: $350

The next best thing to setting up a cot in The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology is owning a copy of this limited-edition book, which features images of more than 500 garments from the likes of Coco Chanel, Alexander McQueen, Yves Saint Laurent, and Vivienne Westwood, all of whom occupy space in the museum's permanent collection. As an appropriate, added bonus, six of the world's top fashion designers—including Akris, Etro, Missoni, Prada, Diane von Furstenberg, and Stella McCartney—have each adorned a series of limited-edition covers with one of their signature prints (we're partial to Stella's eco-friendly style).

Author: Glenn O'Brien
Release date: Nov. 15, 2013
Price: $69.99

There’s no easy one-word adjective that would describe the sometimes inscrutable work of Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin. But it’s really, really cool. And as the title itself says, this flexicover volume includes “pretty much everything” the duo has ever done, from celebrity portraits to fashion campaigns for Givenchy.

Author: Robert Santelli
Release date: Jun. 1, 2013
Price: $700

By now, the story is fairly legendary: in 1956, the publicist for Elvis Presley’s record label sent photographer Alfred Wertheimer to Memphis to shoot the 21-year-old would-be pop star. Wertheimer’s response: “Elvis who?” The assignment proved prescient for the photographer, who would spend the better part of a year tracing Presley’s rise from no-name singer to King of Rock ‘n’ Roll, with more than 3,000 intimate photos to show for it, which are showcased here.

Author: Stefan Fischer
Release date: Jan. 2014
Price: $150

It’s easy to spend hours dissecting a single work from the fantastical mind of Hieronymus Bosch, so just imagine how many hours worth of art-loving fun are contained within this 300-page tome, which includes a 43-inch foldout of The Garden of Earthly Delights.

Editor: Paul Duncan
Release date: Nov. 15, 2010
Price: $1,500

Steve Schapiro is a god among film production photographers. First he (and his camera) were given an all-access pass to the set of The Godfather (which TASCHEN turned into The Godfather Family Album). Then he got up close and personal with Travis Bickle—in all his mohawked madness—on the set of Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver. This clam shell boxed book offers both a photographic history of New York City in the 1970s and an intimate portrait of some of cinema's greatest masters at work. While the $1,500 edition is the holy grail of cineastes, as it's limited to just 1,000 copies, we'll let you in on a little secret: there's a less-elaborate version available for just $69.99.

Author: Philip Jodidio
Release date: Jan. 1, 2013
Price: $49.99

In the world of architecture, Zaha Hadid is a rock star. And she’s got more than 30 years worth of futuristic buildings planted all over the world to prove it, including Austria’s Bergisel Ski Jump, Cincinnati’s Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art, Germany’s BMW Central Building, China’s Guangzhou Opera House, London’s Evelyn Grace Academy, and Scotland’s Glasgow Riverside. And this book covers them all (including the first published images of The New National Stadium of Japan, which will host the Olympics in 2020).

Authors: Vivienne Westwood and Harry Benson
Release date: Sept. 1, 2013
Price: $850

We know, we know. You’ve seen enough of the British royals in the last two years to last a lifetime. But there’s nary a Wills, Kate or Baby Wills and Kate in this fascinating—and intimate—peek into the very private world of Queen Elizabeth, with photos courtesy of photographer Harry Benson (who was made a Commander of the British Empire in 2009) and a handcrafted cover design courtesy of punk rock-turned-haute couture fashion designer Vivienne Westwood.

Authors: Uta and Thilo von Debschitz
Release date: Nov. 15, 2013
Price: $59.99

You know those fun infographics you’ve come to come to rely on to add a little visual spice to what might be otherwise be a dry set of data? Well you’ve got Dr. Fritz Kahn to thank for that. After being chased out of Nazi-occupied Germany, Kahn eventually settled in America, where he realized that complex scientific information could be more easily digested when accompanied by a visual aid. This book celebrates the oft-forgotten work of this visual pioneer on what would be his 125th birthday.

Author: Mario Testino
Release date: Nov. 30, 2012
Price: $700

A monograph on the ultimate celebrity photographer whose audacious portraits have made him a celebrity in his own right, this 300-page photo book—which is limited to 1,500 signed copies, with an injection-molded plastic box cover available in pink, green, or purple—features some of Mario Testino’s most recognizable celebrity portraits (Gwyneth Paltrow, Jennifer Lopez, Princess Diana, and cover girl Lady Gaga included). It also includes dozens of candid pics, plus text by Graydon Carter and Karl Lagerfeld attempting to contextualize Testino’s vision.