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Old Post BooksBOOKS & LITERARY CULTURE

Art News

The trade beneath literary culture: bookseller margins, wholesale discount structures, print run and paper costs, rights and translation sales, returns, and the earnings of a mid-list title. Sources are named where possible. For booksellers, publishers and readers curious about who profits from a book.

The trade beneath literary culture: bookseller margins, wholesale discount structures, print run and paper costs, rights and translation sales, returns, and the earnings of a mid-list title. Sources are named where possible. For booksellers, publishers and readers curious about who profits from a book.

Visitors moving slowly through a quiet contemporary art biennale pavilion in Venice
Art News

Venice Biennale Opens in Minor Keys

The 61st Venice Biennale, realized from the late Koyo Kouoh's curatorial concept, opened to the public on May 9, 2026 with a program of quiet minor registers.

David MorganMay 11, 2026 · 1 min read
Museum bookshop visitors browsing stacks of large exhibition catalogues
Art News

After the Show: Exhibition Catalogues

Exhibition catalogues turn temporary shows into permanent documents, at a cost of colour printing, freight and warehousing that shapes museum publishing itself.

David MorganApril 27, 2026 · 5 min read
Gloved hands turning a vellum page in a manuscripts reading room
Art News

First Light: Illuminated Manuscripts

Illuminated manuscripts begin for most readers with the Book of Hours: calendar, marginalia and gold, much of it viewable online in high resolution.

David MorganMarch 31, 2026 · 5 min read
Close-up of thick oversized art books stacked with blank cloth spines
Art News

Heavy Volumes: Inside Art Book Publishing

Art book publishing rests on three houses — Taschen, Phaidon and Abrams — and an economics of image rights, heavy printing and long backlists.

David MorganMarch 4, 2026 · 5 min read
Infographic of growth in digitized manuscript pages across major library collections
Art News

The Open Folio: Digitized Manuscripts

Digitized manuscripts, from the Met's CC0 images to DigiVatLib and Gallica, have redrawn access to the medieval page — with real limits.

David MorganFebruary 9, 2026 · 5 min read
Readers examining small photobooks around a museum study room table
Art News

Paper as Practice: The Artist's Book

The artist's book treats the bound object itself as the artwork — a genre codified by Ed Ruscha in 1963 and collected by Tate and MoMA.

Imani BrooksJanuary 17, 2026 · 5 min read