Mark Broatch checks out the cream of the coffee table books of 2023. Photos / Supplied
Mark Broatch checks out the cream of the coffee table books of 2023. Photos / Supplied
Artists in Antarctica
by Patrick Shepherd (MUP)
Antarctica exercises a powerful psychic hold over our imaginations. It’s the closest large land mass to us aside from Australia, and the scene of our worst air disaster. This attractive book reflects 66 years of the Antarctica NZ programme, which brings artists andwriters to reflect on its icy vastness.
Don Binney: Flight Path
by Gregory O’Brien (AUP)
Don Binney’s work is instantly recognisable for its frequent stylised depictions of birds on the wing over coastlines and landscapes. Drawing on the artist’s letters and other writings, esteemed arts writer Gregory O’Brien traces his mercurial life, work and artistic evolution in this landmark book.
Everest Mountain Guide
by Guy Cotter (Potton & Burton)
Lively and insightful memoir from Guy Cotter, who got the mountain bug from his father and climbed in the Southern Alps from age 5. It’s full of his many ascents, thrills, spills and misfortune, including the tragic loss of his friend and colleague Rob Hall on Everest.
Artists in Antarctica by Patrick Shepherd, Don Binney: Flight Path by Gregory O’Brien and Everest Mountain Guide
by Guy Cotter. Photos / Supplied
Several years in the making, this is a declared visual celebration of the relationships between people and plants, as revealed through curators’ picks of Te Papa’s collections, from botany to paintings, dresses to stamps, seed packets to photographs, cloaks to leis.
Gordon Walters
by Francis Pound (AUP)
The late Francis Pound’s magisterial, 429-illustration homage to one of our greatest painters is also a masterclass in this country’s art history. It’s the most in-depth study of an unfolding artistic imagination – historical context and his struggle for perfection included – yet produced.
Ngā Kaihanga Uku: Māori Clay Artists
by Baye Riddell (Te Papa Press)
The first comprehensive overview of Māori pottery and clay work, written by one of its founders. It’s filled with images of the work and artists of the Māori clayworkers’ collective, which was set up to restore ancestral Pacific practice.
Flora: Celebrating our botanical world edited by Carlos Lehnebach et al, Gordon Walters by Francis Pound and Ngā Kaihanga Uku: Māori Clay Artists
by Baye Riddell. Photos / Supplied
What began as a Covid project became this vibrant account – including coloured page edges – of images and essays, covering many aspects of the country’s Pacific arts and culture, from musician Bill Sevesi to poetry, films, murals, tivaevae and tattoos.
Rewi
by Jeremy Hansen and Jade Kake (MUP)
A luxurious tribute, four years in the making, to the late architect and teacher Rewi Thompson. Written by an architecture writer and an urban issues commentator, it reflects on Thompson’s work – including several houses, civic buildings and Wellington’s City to Sea bridge – and thinking.
Pacific Arts Aotearoa edited by Lana Lopesi and Rewi by Jeremy Hansen and Jade Kake. Photo / Supplied
Out and about
Fishes of Aotearoa
by Paul Caiger (Potton & Burton)
An exploration of our fishes, from freshwater to tidal to deep-water, near-subtropical to subantarctic.
Sheppard & Rout Architects
edited by David Sheppard (Quentin Wilson)
Forty years of a storied Christchurch architectural practice.
Transmission Gully: Celebration of a Motorway
by Alistair Clark (self-published)
Dedicated pictorial documentation of seven years of the Wellington motorway’s construction.
Fishes of Aotearoa by Paul Caiger, Sheppard & Rout Architects edited by David Sheppard and Transmission Gully: Celebration of a Motorway by Alistair Clark. Photo / Supplied
Skippers Canyon: History, Art and Adventure
by John Gillies (Quentin Wilson)
Paintings and personal historical sketches of the picturesque gorge carved out by the Shotover River.
A Spirit Companion: Celebrating the first 50 years of the Spirit of Adventure Trust
by Roger McDonald (Oratia)
Stories from the young trainees who went aboard the Spirit of Adventure tall ships.
Thomas Gilchrist and Sons Limited of the Māniototo by Paula Wagemaker et al, A Spirit Companion: Celebrating the first 50 years of the Spirit of Adventure Trust by Roger McDonald and Light & Reflections by Helen Beaglehole. Photos / Supplied
Light & Reflections
by Helen Beaglehole (The Cuba Press)
The Beagleholes’ Karori house and its singular collection of NZ art.
Skippers Canyon: History, Art and Adventure by John Gillies, Salt: Coastal connections by Terry Fitzgibbon and Vintage Aviators: Aircraft of the great war by Gavin Conroy. Photo / Supplied
Salt: Coastal connections
by Terry Fitzgibbon (White Cloud Books)
Poems by Fitzgibbon alongside black and white coastline photographs by Kim Westerkov.
Thomas Gilchrist and Sons Limited of the Māniototo
by Paula Wagemaker et al (Quentin Wilson)
Lavishly illustrated story of the 121-year-old general store.
Living Big in a Tiny House
by Bruce Langston (Potton & Burton)
Tiny houses here and around the world explored by the YouTube star.
Living Big in a Tiny House by Bruce Langston, Tramping in Aotearoa: New Zealand’s Top 45 Tracks by Shaun Barnett and Ahuahu: A Conservation Journey in Aotearoa New Zealand by David Towns. Photos / Supplied
Tramping in Aotearoa: New Zealand’s Top 45 Tracks
by Shaun Barnett (Potton & Burton)
Updated, revised and expanded guide to our nation’s wild tracks.
Ahuahu: A Conservation Journey in Aotearoa New Zealand
by David Towns (University of Canterbury Press)
Great Mercury Island as a template for conservation of native species.
Vintage Aviators: Aircraft of the great war
by Gavin Conroy (Potton & Burton)
Aerial photos of rare World War I aircraft from Sir Peter Jackson’s world-leading collection.
