The coffee table book is here to stay

During a pivotal scene in the classic Hitchcock film Dial M for Murder, you can spy a handbag belonging to Grace Kelly’s character, Margot Wendice, resting atop a pile of Phaidon coffee table books about artists such as Leonardo Da Vinci and Giovanni Bellini. While style preferences have shifted since the movie’s release in 1954, in freeze frame the mis en scene still has a contemporary feeling given how often we still find collectible monographs playing a starring role as objets in inspiring living spaces.

Consider the recent photos in Architectural Digest of model Winnie Harlow’s black, white and gold living room, where books about Chanel and Virgil Abloh are seen perched on a vintage cocktail table. Or the compilation of books rendered in San Francisco-based painter Mary Finlayson’s works, which include titles on David Hockney, Ellsworth Kelly and Kenojuak Ashevak. While the obituary for the printed word has been written again and again, visually rich reads bound between design-savvy covers remain ubiquitous.

Coffee-table books, be they opulently crafted and outsized or stylistically subtle, are too good at revealing who we are – or who we want to be seen as – to be on the outs. And they’re too fulfilling not to savour on a rainy afternoon at the cottage, transporting us to a wanderlust-worthy destination or revealing luscious photos and factoids about favourite chefs, musicians and makers.

Amanda Gauthier, director of print experience at Indigo, posits that the endurance of the medium is due to the books’ functional versatility as both content vessel and knick-knack, as well as their ability to mine topics from universal to niche. Her personal favourite, Beth Moon’s book Literary Chickens – which pairs striking photos of elegant and emotive fowl with quotes from the likes of Geothe and Jane Austen – is a great example of what fanciful and hugely specific delights can abound in the coffee-table book category.

“It is deeply funny, but also features some of my favourite passages of literature,” Gaultier says. “When I open it, it reminds me of why I love all these classic books.”

Yet it’s not only the thematic material that keeps us coming back to coffee-table books. It’s also their own materiality. “They have a great deal of artistry to them,” says Adrian Mainella, a Toronto-based real-estate broker and senior vice-president of sales at Sotheby’s International Realty. “Coffee-table books are the sound bite of who you are, what you aspire to be, and what your aesthetics are,” he says.

One of the luxury properties Mainella recently sold was styled with coffee-table books about Andy Warhol’s vivid portraits and fashion designer Oscar de la Renta. He says that when it comes to adding coffee-table books to a staged home, “we’re looking for identifiable cues for people when they walk into a space to feel either aspirational, or to signify that they’re in the ‘right’ space.”

Coffee table books are helpful at revealing who we are and how we want to be seen.Birdhouse Media/Supplied

And though he can cite a catalogue of the most cachet-capturing titles in print, Mainella says that his own collection – which is rather extensive, given his former gig as a fashion journalist – is stocked with pages that conjure memories more than clout. One such book is about Liberty of London, which reminds him of escaping to the grand retailer for a sense of solace in a bustling metropolis when he lived in the British capital years ago.

The coffee-table book can easily serve as this sort of travel souvenir, or as a memento of a viewpoint-altering art exhibition. But it can also be a smart investment, with the most collectible titles holding their value for decades.

Anthony Barzilay Freund, editorial director of the resale-focused e-commerce site 1st Dibs, notes that searches for second-hand titles have been up 35 per cent year over year for options from the most prominent publishers including Assouline, Taschen, Phaidon and Rizzoli. Jewellery and travel are two key themes, and he adds that 1st Dibs works with specialists in rare and vintage coffee-table titles, among them Potterton Books, to keep up with popular and idiosyncratic interests.

“Our highly engaged audience of aesthetically minded consumers and leading members of the trade community turn to books for inspiration and education – not just as cool accessories,” he writes from the company’s office in New York.

According to Freund, Phaidon was the most searched publisher on the site in 2022. To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the New York-based publisher, the Rockefeller Center location of Christie’s auction house is hosting the exhibition 100 Years of Creativity: A Century of Bookmaking at Phaidon until Sept. 18. The show, which will travel to London later this year, features more than 150 books that span the company’s history, from the cookbook Silver Spoon (which has sold more than 1.5 million copies) to a copy of the 2019 tome Rihanna: Luxury Supreme.

“The mission is the same, which is to make smart, beautiful books that are produced with a total commitment and attention to quality and detail,” says Deb Aaronson, Phaidon’s vice-president and group publisher about her business’ ethos.

The publisher’s forthcoming title about inimitable American designer Thom Browne includes vellum pages to conjure the heirloom quality that’s so potent in old family photo albums, as well as a sumptuous grey cloth cover. Its bookmark is, naturally, a strip of Browne’s consistently used and instantly recognizable red, white and blue striped ribbon.

Fashion fans and interior decorators often view such titles as an accessory with the same “it factor” as an instantly recognizable handbag. Designer Tom Ford’s monograph, for example, with its graphic black cover and all-caps white type, will in 2024 celebrate two decades of being one of the most well-known coffee-table books of all time. Ford’s suave personality, elite attitude and ability to shift from fashion designer to film director and beyond lends his book the shorthand sentiment of “I have exceptional taste” to anyone who features it in their home or office.

Gaultier says that in recent years publishers have also started championing BIPOC subjects and multicultural contributors to appeal to a younger demographic swayed by political and cultural viewpoints as much as what’s trending. Recent books about Canadian artist Kent Monkman’s oeuvre and upcoming titles such as The Color of Dance: A Celebration of Diversity and Inclusion in the World of Ballet are well suited to spaces that capture how stylistic choices are ever more closely tied to personal values.

She points to Kim Kardashian’s 2015 book Selfish as being a surprisingly thoughtful title that transcended expectations to entice a younger-skewing audience of coffee-table book buyers. “You might just think it’s the Kardashians taking up space in perhaps a place that they don’t belong, but the work was really compelling. You could easily write it off as being two-dimensional if you only read about it, but when you picked it up, you realized that it’s quite interesting.”

In other words, as the coffee-table genre evolves, these books will need to offer more than a decor-friendly cover.

In the stacks

Five coffee-table books to spruce up any space, from the tried-and-true to the new and noteworthy

On display: Chanel No. 5: At Story of A Perfume, Thom Browne -The 20th Anniversary Book, Colville, Tom Ford, Palm Beach and The Color of Dance: A Celebration of Diversity and Inclusion in the World of BalletIllustration by Salini Perera

Scent sensibility

Released to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Chanel’s quintessential fragrance, Chanel No. 5 is a robust two-volume tome published by Thames & Hudson.

Chanel No. 5: At Story of A Perfume by Pauline Dreyfus, $250 at Indigo (indigo.ca).

Model behaviour

As she enjoys a career comeback, Canadian supermodel Linda Evangelista is also paid tribute to in this new title that reveals a portfolio of images by Steven Meisel.

Linda Evangelista Photographed by Steven Meisel, $200 through phaidon.com.

Painterly pages

Co-published by the Art Gallery of Ontario and Goose Lane Editions, this book features more than 100 reproductions of the stunning work of late Nova Scotia artist Alex Colville.

Colville by Andrew Hunter, $39.95 at the Art Gallery of Ontario (ago.ca).

Legacy mode

This vibrant tribute charts the meteoric rise of the late, great creative Virgil Abloh during his time at one of luxury fashion’s best-known houses.

Louis Vuitton Virgil Abloh, $185, available at select Louis Vuitton stores (louisvuitton.com).

Just beachy

Assouline’s tantalizing travel books are much-loved thanks to their jaunty design and insider perspective, such as this volume written by tastemaker Aerin Lauder.

Palm Beach by Aerin Lauder, $140 through assouline.com.