Marta Costa Reis, Mònica Gaspar, and Patrícia Domingues, eds., Madrugada: A joalharia e a política da Esperança (Daybreak: Jewellery and the Politics of Hope). Lisbon: PIN – Portuguese Association of Contemporary Jewellery and CML/MUDE Museu do Design, 2025. (In Portuguese/English) The 3rd Lisbon Contemporary Jewellery Biennial, organized by PIN – Portuguese Association for Contemporary Jewellery,
Damian Skinner, ed., Marzee. Stuttgart: Arnoldsche Art Publishers, 2026. “Ownership is the most intimate relationship one can have to objects. Not that they come alive in you; it is you who lives in them.” —Walter Benjamin This sober, light-blue volume, with its cloth-bound spine, could be described as a comprehensive book on the history of
Melanie Grant, ed., The Jewelry Book. London: Phaidon, 2025. I’m not immune to the allure of stones and precious metals, but I prefer studio jewelry and unconventional adornment. Nonetheless, I found Melanie Grant’s The Jewelry Book, which focuses heavily on high-end baubles, engrossing and enchanting. The book’s 300 jewelry-focused entries feature glorious examples of craftsmanship
The Jewelry Book Reviewed through an Art Jewelry Lens Read More »
Helen Molesworth, Precious: The History and Mystery of Gems Across Time. New York: Ballantine Books, 2024. Helen Molesworth’s Precious: The History and Mystery of Gems Across Time isn’t just a book about gemstones. It’s a journey of human desire, power, culture, and history told through 10 gemstones. It shows how our ambitions for power, love,
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Bette Barnett, Creating Steel Jewelry: Etching, Fusing, Keum Boo, Enameling, Stainless and More. Watchung, NJ: Artisan Ideas, 2024. At a time where cookbooks double as memoirs and influencer memoirs are lifestyle sales pitches, it’s nice to review a book that is exactly what it is. Bette Barnett’s Creating Steel Jewelry is an informative textbook about
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Arnoldsche published Bizarre Beauty, a book about William Harper, last year. AJF timed the release of this review of it to coincide with and celebrate an unrelated exhibition, Precious Grotesqueries: The Jewels of William Harper. That show will run October 23–December 12, 2025, at Les Enluminures.[1] Glenn Adamson and Martha J. Fleischman (eds.), Bizarre Beauty:
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Céline Robin and Robert Mazlo, Sacrés Outils! Paris: Robert Mazlo Endowment Fund for Art and Contemporary Art Jewellery, 2022. Sacrés Outils! is one of the most curious books I’ve ever held. It sketches out jewelry tools of the past and highlights contemporary makers who make tool-related work. Also, it holds a list of institutions that teach jewelry.
2.2 Kilograms on Tools and Techniques Read More »
Damian Skinner and Keith Lewis, Dead Souls: Desire and Memory in the Jewelry of Keith Lewis. Stuttgart: Arnoldsche, 2023. When I first learned a monograph would be published on the work of Keith Lewis, I immediately wanted to review it. Lewis’s work was brought up frequently in my early years of studying, whether about the work
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Vikki Tobak, Ice Cold: A Hip-Hop Jewelry History. Cologne: Taschen, 2022. This book is an excellent example of how jewelry and identity go hand in hand A related show, Ice Cold: An Exhibition Of Hip-Hop Jewelry, guest-curated by the book’s author, opened last week at the American Museum of Natural History, in NYC It’s striking
Ariella Aïsha Azoulay is an important voice in the postcolonial debate Her latest research work is interwoven with her personal history, much of it having to do with jewelry after she discovered that part of her identity had been hidden from her The book underscores that identity can be forcibly simplified, officially obliterated. The things
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The book North By Northwest is engaging, informative, and very ably researched, with a lively graphic design Its large format is well-suited to presenting Laurie Hall’s work, which often consists of big narrative neckpieces with many components The authors present individual pieces with relevant backstories, personal circumstances, and useful explanations about social and historical references
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This bilingual catalog supported an exhibition of the same name Both the show and the book aimed to promote the role and history of women in Austria in the field of jewelry design and in Austrian jewelry history The book is not successful on a number of levels Ursula Guttmann, Susanne Hammer, and Gabriele Kutschera,
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