Holiday Gift Guide 2020: Illustrated Books

Adjaye, who designed Washington, D.C.’s National Museum for African American History and Culture, has almost 20 years of practice and a raft of high-profile projects around the world, and this book looks back on the houses and buildings of his early career. From London to Brooklyn, in private houses and public buildings, his urban interventions abound: roof-level living space is added to a factory-turned-studio, a sunken courtyard encases a tower-like house, and basalt stone extends a basement dining area to a roofless gazebo. Daddy-O’s Book of Big-Ass Art Bob Wade (Texas A&M Univ.) ISBN 978-1-62349-869-6, $35 Bob “Daddy-O” Wade, a recipient of three NEA grants whose works are exhibited at New York City’s Whitney Museum, the de Menil Collection in Houston, and other venues, started “keeping it weird” in 1961, when he arrived in Austin to study art. Among the topics explored are the impact of momentous acquisitions, the central importance of education and accessibility, the collaborations that have been born out of international excavations, the museum’s role in preserving cultural heritage, and its interaction with contemporary art and artists.