The good news for book lovers is that indie booksellers, publishers, institutions and makers continue to team up with events and unusual offerings designed to satisfy the visual treats we all yearn for. Following is just a snack for the coming weeks. More to follow as the DART Board continues to keep you posted.  

Monday, January 12, 6pm: Sergio Ruzzier and Sophie Blackall in conversation

Leading the pack, SVA’s MFA Illustration as Visual Essay Program has made their first public events of the new year a special in partnership with Rizzoli and the Sendak Fellowship, a program of The Maurice Sendak Foundation. The second in a new series of public conversations dedicated to the art and craft of the picture book to be hosted at Rizzoli, the bringing together fellows, artists, illustrators, writers, and editors to discuss the creative and collaborative processes behind illustrated storytelling. Speakers will examine the history and evolving traditions of the picture book, exploring how images and words work together to create stories that resonate across generations. Though often associated with childhood, picture books remain powerful literary, visual, and cultural forms for readers of all ages, bridging memory, imagination, and shared experience.

Sophie Blackall [above left] has illustrated over 60 books for children, including the New York Times best-selling Ivy and Bean series, the 2016 Caldecott Medal winner, Finding Winnie and the 2019 Caldecott Medal winner, Hello Lighthouse. She is a five-time recipient of the New York Times Best Illustrated Picture Book Award. Originally from Australia, she now splits her time between Brooklyn, New York, and the Catskill Mountains, where she and her husband run a retreat for the children’s book community called Milkwood Farm.

Sergio Ruzzier [above right] was born and grew up in Milan, just around the corner from the medieval Little Church of the Lizards, and moved to New York in the mid 1990s. A 2011 Sendak Fellow, he has written and illustrated many picture books, both for children and grownups. Sergio now spends most of his time in an old house in the Apennine mountains.

Wednesday, January 15, 6-8 pm: 2025 Paris Photo-Aperture PhotoBook Award

Printed Matter is pleased to present an exhibition of shortlisted titles from the 2025 Paris Photo–Aperture PhotoBook Awards, a presentation of thirty-seven books identified for their compelling and fresh approaches to what’s possible within the photobook form.  

This presentation marks the fifth year of collaboration between Printed Matter and the Paris Photo–Aperture PhotoBook Awards, which recognize excellence and innovation in three major categories of photobook publishing: First PhotoBook, PhotoBook of the Year, and Photography Catalog of the Year. This year, Paris Photo–Aperture PhotoBook Awards received over one thousand books from fifty-five countries around the world. Over the past thirteen years of the Awards’ selections, the shortlist has come to embody an inspiring survey of new possibilities for photography on the printed page. Learn more about the exhibition. Select shortlist titles will be available for purchase through Printed Matter upon the presentation’s opening.

Printed Matter, Inc., 231 11^th Avenue, New York, NY Info

Albertine Book Club meeting, Tuesday, February 10: The Dream of the Jaguar

If you have been wanting to join a book club that delves into challenging literary fiction, this might be just what’s needed for the wintery month ahead. The next meeting of the Albertine Book Club will discuss  the novel The Dream of the Jaguar by Miguel Bonnefoy, translated from the French by Ruth Diver and published by Other Press.

When a mute beggar from Maracaibo, Venezuela, takes in a newborn abandoned on the steps of a church, she has no idea of the extraordinary destiny that awaits the orphan. Raised in poverty, Antonio will be a cigarette seller, a porter on the docks, a servant in a brothel before becoming, thanks to his effusive energy, one of the most illustrious surgeons in his country.

An exceptional partner will inspire him. Ana Maria will distinguish herself as the first female doctor in the region. They will give birth to a daughter whom they will name after their own country: Venezuela. Connected to South America by her first name as much as by her origins, she only has eyes for Paris. But we never truly leave our own people. It is in the notebook of Cristóbal, the last link of their family, that the stories of this astonishing lineage will finally take shape.

To join the Albertine Book Club, become a member [here] and wait for an email confirmation. The book can be purchased here. Participants are free to speak in English or in French, but a strong command of the French language is recommended.

Albertie Books, 972 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY Info

From Left Bank Books:

The first US edition of German cinema enfant terrible Klaus Kinski’s bestselling memoir All I Need Is Love(1988). Kinski’s raw, acerbic, and thoroughly lurid confessional bars no holds. Chronicling his life from his destitute childhood in pre-war Berlin (which his regular collaborator Werner Herzog has claimed is fabricated) to international stardom, while recounting his many acts of depravity along the way, Kinski’s autobiography should be avoided by the faint of heart. This first US edition gave rise to two consecutive libel lawsuits: the first from his daughter Nastassja, and the second from Marlene Dietrich, which resulted in a copyright dispute between Random House and Kinski’s West German publisher. The book was withdrawn and not published again in English until after Kinski’s death. Dust jacket illustrated by Kinski. Fine condition, in unclipped dust jacket, $400

Left Bank Books, 41 Perry Street, New York, NY Info

From Harper’s Books: Disobediant Bodies | JW Anderson 

Disobedient Bodies: JW Anderson at The Hepworth Wakefield, is a rare artist's catalogue published to accompany fashion designer Jonathan Anderson's exhibition at The Hepworth Wakefield in West Yorkshire (signed). Invited by the museum to curate a show from its collection, Anderson chose the theme of "disobedient bodies"—inspired by the sculptures of Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth—curating a series of fashion-art dialogues with works by Lynda Benglis, Louise Bourgeois, Constantin Brancusi, Comme des Garçons, Merce Cunningham, Helmut Lang, Yves Saint Laurent, Loewe, Sarah Lucas, Issey Miyake, Rick Owens, Dorothea Tanning, and Vivienne Westwood. More of a lookbook than exhibition catalogue, supplemented by a series of surreal images from Anderson's collaboration with photographer Jamie Hawkesworth (The Thinleys). A fine copy with original binding cord and labeled mylar envelope. $400.00

Harper’s Books, 504 West 22^nd Street, New York, NY Info