The Coffee Table

Becoming Animal: ContemporaryArt in the Animal Kingdom Other notable titles: The Book of Shrigley (Chronicle Books, 221 pages, $25), a packed collection of random, scrappy, strange and often hilarious drawings from Scottish artist David Shrigley; Becoming Animal: Contemporary Art in the Animal Kingdom (MASS MoCA Publications, 140 pages, $25), an exceptionally creepy exhibition catalog devoted to artists whose work explores the ties between humans and animals; more quirky animals in a collection of Jay Ryan’s art, 100 Posters, 134 Squirrels (Punk Planet Books/Akashic, 120 pages, $21); The Age of Adolescence: Joseph Sterling Photographs 1959–1964 (Greybull Press, 133 pages, $65), a beautiful volume of documentary photography devoted to teenagers during the first explosion of American youth culture; Esther Bubley: On Assignment(Aperture, 128 pages, $35), a worthy, if abbreviated, introduction to an underappreciated postwar photojournalist; Anthony Hernandez: Everything (Nazraeli Press/JGS, 80 pages, $65), a gorgeous monograph showcasing an evocative body of new work; Linger (Perceval Press, 104 pages, $35), a quiet, contemplative book of photographs by the ever-restless Viggo Mortensen; The Weather and a Place To Live (Duke University Press, 122 pages, $40), formally refined and conceptually clever photographs exploring the desert suburbs of the West; On This Earth: Photographs From East Africa (Chronicle Books, 129 pages, $40), highly aestheticized images of African animals by Nick Brandt; Kings in their Castles: Photographs of Queer Men at Home (University of Wisconsin Press, 92 pages, $35), a book that could have been reductive and gimmicky but isn’t, thanks to the sensitivity and understated complexity of Tom Atwood’s photographs; Ladies or Gentlemen: A Pictorial History of Male Cross-Dressing in the Movies(Filipacchi Publishing, 408 pages, $65), just what the title implies: an encyclopedic (though not particularly scholarly) examination of a long-standing Hollywood phenomenon. The artist Shag has definitely got his shtick down — if it’s up your alley, Shag: The Art of Josh Agle (Chronicle Books, 224 pages, $40) is plenty of it, beautifully printed.

Nazar: Photographs From the Arab World

Art Photography Now