The Best Books of 2020: Beautiful Books

by |December 11, 2020
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We’re rounding up The Best Books of 2020! Lifestyle Books Category Manager Shanulisa Prasad is on the blog today to share her favourite beautiful books in art, design, fashion, music, and home & garden.


This year’s pick of beautiful books all had one unifying factor: the ability to transport the reader. We were taken behind the scenes of haute couture ateliers, through the mind of one of our cultural icons, into spaces and to objects that embodied the ethos of style. We were given a seasonal look at a favourite garden, taken to far flung locales through the eyes of an Instagram sensation and were introduced to the sacred spaces within our own country.

Explore the best beautiful books of 2020 below!


The Illustrated World of Couture

by Megan Hess

9781743794449 - 2020

Read an extract from The Illustrated World of Couture here.

Hundreds of hours, many expert hands and unimaginable metres of fabric: couture is truly wearable art, where creativity and craftsmanship collide. Megan Hess has spent her career documenting fashion’s most beautiful people, places and pieces. In The Illustrated World of Couture, she brings to life its most important – and intriguing – art form, with fascinating insights and exceptional illustrations.

Buy it here


Forever Wandering

by Emilie Ristevski

9781741177190 - 2020

Read an extract from Forever Wandering here.

Forever Wandering documents the endless beauty of our natural world. Photographer and the creative mind behind @helloemilie, Emilie Ristevski, invites you on a journey through her lens with a collection of otherworldly landscapes and photographic studies of the delicate ecosystems that make our planet unique. The photography that fills these pages shows our world’s immense diversity, from the vast desert landscapes in Namibia to the frozen glacial icecaps in Greenland and the red haze of the Australian outback.

Buy it here


Stranger Than Kindness

by Nick Cave

9781838852245 - 2020

Stranger Than Kindness is a journey in images and words into the creative world of musician, storyteller and cultural icon Nick Cave. Featuring full-colour reproductions of original artwork, handwritten lyrics, photographs and collected personal artefacts, it presents Cave’s life, work and inspiration and explores his many real and imagined universes. Images are paired with commentary and meditations from Cave and celebrated writer Darcey Steinke on themes that are central to Cave’s work.

Buy it here


Still

by Natalie Walton

9781743795705

Still invites readers to take on the philosophy of the SLOW movement: Living Sustainable. Local. Organic. And Whole. This beautiful book explores the homes of twenty people from around the world – across four continents and thirteen countries – enlightening readers as to why they chose the SLOW path and how it has benefitted their lives. There is no one way, but many paths that are leading to more awareness and a greater conversation.

Buy it here


A Century of Colour in Design

by David Harrison

9781760760533

Discover the dazzling history of colour in design, from Bauhaus to Memphis and beyond. This curated anthology of furniture, fabric, lights and decorative objects shows how colour has defined key designs over the last century.

Buy it here


Stonefields by the Seasons

by Paul Bangay

9781760895082

Paul Bangay’s celebrated Victorian property, Stonefields, has now been under his expert care for 15 years. Today, in 2020, the garden is mature and more beautiful than ever – from the vibrant autumn colours in the woodland and evocative dormancy of winter to the jubilant flowering of the crab apple in springtime and perpetual rich harvest of produce. In Stonefields by the Seasons, Paul takes the reader through the garden at different times of year to highlight the design principles he has applied to various parts of it, and the wide-ranging inspirations for his choices. Along the way, he gives practical advice on seasonal planting and outlines essential quarterly tasks.

Buy it here


Loving Country

by Bruce Pascoe and Vicky Shukuroglou

9781741176483

Loving Country is a powerful and essential guidebook that offers a new way to travel and discover Australia through an Indigenous narrative. In this beautifully designed and photographed edition, co-authors Bruce Pascoe and Vicky Shukuroglou show travellers how to see the country as herself, to know her whole and old story, and to find the way to fall in love with her, our home.

Buy it here


Explore more of The Best Books of 2020!

The Best Books of 2020
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