A great coffee-table book does more than fill an empty surface. It can introduce a new visual language, preserve a cultural moment, or turn a familiar icon into something worth looking at again. Complex’s current books selection brings together heavyweight art monographs, fashion archives, sports histories, music documents, travel photography, and one compact journal for everyday ideas.
The eight picks below cover a wide range of interests, but they share the same appeal: each one has enough visual and cultural weight to be read, revisited, and left open for conversation.
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Basquiat: The World of Jean-Michel
Price: $1,400
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Assouline’s Basquiat: The World of Jean-Michel is the collector’s centerpiece of this group. Organized thematically, the 348-page volume moves through Basquiat’s Heads, New York City, silkscreens, collaborations with Andy Warhol, the Blue Ribbon series, and his explorations of the body, Black identity, and mythology. Rare archival photographs and handwritten notes from Keith Haring and Robert Rauschenberg add a personal dimension, while the handcrafted canvas clamshell case makes the object itself feel closer to an art piece than a conventional book.
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Louis Vuitton: Virgil Abloh — Classic Cartoon Cover
Price: $140
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Virgil Abloh’s Louis Vuitton era gets the deluxe treatment in this Assouline classic. The book documents the designer’s boundary-breaking partnership with the luxury house through more than 250 iconic images and reflections from collaborators and friends including Nigo, Naomi Campbell, Luka Sabbat, Kendall Jenner, and Kid Cudi. This edition is finished with a silk hardcover featuring a cartoon artwork from Abloh’s Spring/Summer 2021 show by Reggieknow, giving the book a cover that feels as expressive as the work inside.
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Basketball: The Impossible Collection
Price: $1,400
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For the basketball obsessive, Basketball: The Impossible Collection is built to be a definitive visual archive. Journalist Howard Beck recounts 100 of the NBA’s most significant moments, moving from Wilt Chamberlain and Michael Jordan to Allen Iverson and LeBron James. The 220-page Assouline volume is housed in an embossed rubber clamshell modeled after an orange basketball, making it as much a display object as a history of the league’s legends, dynasties, dunks, and championship moments. 3
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The Book of HOV: A Tribute to Jay-Z — Classic
Price: $120
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Presented in the deep blue associated with Jay-Z’s vision and legacy, The Book of HOV turns the Brooklyn Public Library’s immersive exhibition into a substantial permanent volume. Across 432 pages and more than 675 illustrations, it gathers recording masters, stage wear, interviews, awards, videos, and unseen photographs from across Shawn Carter’s career. Eight chapters—each named after a Jay-Z lyric—trace his influence across artistry, entrepreneurship, activism, and culture.
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Visitor Journal — Brown
Price: $35
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Not every worthwhile book needs to be a monumental art history. Sienna Spiro’s Visitor Journal is the practical, everyday entry in the edit: a 5-by-7-inch bound notebook with a faux-croc cover, gold foil “Visitor” graphic, and lined interior pages. It brings a little object-level drama to daily notes, sketches, lists, and ideas without asking for the shelf space—or the investment—of a deluxe monograph.
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Air Jordan — Classic
Price: $123
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The Air Jordan classic edition is not simply a basketball biography. It is a visual history of the 40-year partnership between Michael Jordan and Jordan Brand, structured across six chapters that reflect Jordan’s six championships. The book explores design, business, pop culture, style, and athletic performance, while rare material from Jordan’s personal archives—including childhood trophies, his college cap and gown, and historic apparel—adds a more intimate dimension. The $123 price is a direct nod to Jordan’s iconic jersey number.
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Icons
Price: $80
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Taschen’s Icons is the most focused sneaker book in the lineup, dedicated to Nike and Virgil Abloh’s The Ten collaboration. Across 352 pages, it examines all ten silhouettes—from the Air Jordan 1 to the Air Presto—and separates the project into its “REVEALING” and “GHOSTING” themes. The open-spine Swiss binding suits the subject’s design-forward sensibility, making this a strong pick for anyone interested in the process behind one of modern sneaker culture’s defining collaborations.
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Paradise Courts
Price: $180
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Paradise Courts brings a travel-minded point of view to the coffee table. Published by ERG Media, the large-format hardcover gathers more than 200 original photographs by Emanuele D’Angelo of Broken Rackets, moving from five-star hotel courts to public courts in New York and the beaches of Rio de Janeiro. Along the way, the book connects tennis to fashion, architecture, travel, and lifestyle, with an interview with ATP player Reilly Opelka and a look inside the John Lautner-designed Sheats-Goldstein House. A tennis-ball-yellow spine and green velvet slipcase make it a particularly strong display object for anyone who likes their sports books to feel like art direction.
