Matali Crasset’s Book List
Books have always accompanied me to help me clarify my thoughts, reflect on my practice. Although in my practice I work with mental images, words and texts are still very important to me. With reading my interests widen. My sensitivity to social thought, anthropology, and ethnology is affirmed. However, I feel very small in the face of the knowledge that the written word contains. I have only climbed a few steps of what is an imposing mountain, yet I find that it is a never-ending joy.
Les livres m'ont toujours accompagné pour préciser mes pensées, réfléchir sur ma pratique. Même si dans ma pratique je travaille à partir d'images mentales, le mot, le texte sont toujours cependant très importants pour moi. Après les centres d'intérêts se sont élargis. Ma sensibilité pour les pensées sociales, l'anthropologie, l'ethnologie s'est affirmée. Je me sens cependant très petite face aux connaissances de l'écrit. J'ai juste gravi quelques pas de cette imposante montagne, donc c'est un bonheur sans fin.
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As a teenager, I often read and reread Emile Zola, whose novel about the happiness of women was one of my favorite books, depicting an entire mural of society. I don’t know how to account for my fascination with this book today, but along with the love story between Denise Baudu and Octave Mouret, I think it was the social portrait that so enthused me.
Adolescente, j'ai beaucoup lu et relu Emile Zola, dont le roman au bonheur des dames était un de mes livres de chevet, la description de cette fresque sociale en regard de l'évolution de la société. Je ne sais pas comment regarder cette fascination pour ce livre aujourd'hui, mais plus que l'histoire d'amour entre Denise Baudu et Octave Mouret, je crois que c'est le tableau social qui m'a enthousiamé.
I became acquainted with this book by wine expert and father of natural wine-making Jules Chauvet through the publisher, John Paul Rocher, who produced a remarkable and politically astute reissue of a 1981 interview with Chauvet. While it may be a very technical book, it appeals to my interest in our relationship with nature and my interest in biodynamics. The world of wine is probably also a parable of our society. Wine is an encounter between vine, soil, and man.
This book also introduced to many other readings—that’s also the magic of books: it expands one’s network of knowledge.
Ce livre de Jules Chauvet, que j'ai connu par l'éditeur jean Paul Rocher a et qui a fait un travail de réédition remarquable et politique - est peut-être un livre très technique, mais il illustre mon rapport à la nature, mon intérêt pour la biodynamie. Le monde du vin est sans doute aussi une parabole de notre société. Un vin c'est la rencontre entre une vigne, un sol et un homme.
Ce livre m'a ouvert vers beaucoup d'autres lectures, c'est aussi cela la magie des livres, d'élargir son réseau de connaissance.
Perec is an author I always read with relish and this book was the first by the author that I devoured. Beyond the issues it addresses, my fascination with Perec’s work perhaps lies in the echo that I see in my practice as a designer: within the very specific and restrictive rules of writing, you can always find the freedom to invent, similar to the way the product designer creates something inventive within the constraints of industry.
C'est un auteur que je lis toujours avec délectation--ce livre car il fut le premier de Perec que j'ai dévoré. Au delà des sujets qu'il aborde, ma fascination pour l'écriture de Perec est peut-être l'écho que j'y vois dans ma pratique de designer : avec des règles d'écriture très précises et contraignantes, on peut toujours trouver une liberté et inventer, s'inventer, comme le designer avec les contraintes industrielles.
A superb, fascinatingly poetic text. Some phrases have remained with me like enigmas but possessing a terrible beauty. This book accompanied me during my final-year diploma project at the Ateliers where I worked with water, light, and fire on my “Domestic Trilogy.” “The house shelters daydreaming, the house protects the dreamer, the house allows us to dream in peace.”—Gaston Bachelard
Un superbe texte d'une poésie fascinante, certaines phrases me sont restés comme des énigmes mais d'une beauté redoutable. C'est un livre qui m'a accompagné pendant mon projet de fin de diplôme aux Ateliers où je travaillais sur l'eau, la lumière et le feu autour du projet de la Trilogie domestique. “La maison abrite la rêverie, la maison protège le rêveur, la maison nous permet de rêver en paix.”
My interest in Jane Addams was born after an exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago where I discovered her work, including Hull House, which is the expression of Addams’s social thought and political action. I am very interested in any social thought that has been developed in parallel with the industrial revolution, at a time when the word “design” came to be constructed, and when thinkers including Thomas More and Charles More proposed alternative social models—utopias. It seems to me that the same questions now inspire us, society offers the same choices. This is not a matter of nostalgia, but rather a reflection on what seems to be a fundamental issue.
Mon intérêt pour Jane Addams est né à la suite d'un exposition à Chicago à l'Art Institute ou j'ai découvert son oeuvre et notamment les Hull house, qui sont l'expression de sa pensée sociale et de son action politique. Jane Addams exprime mon vif intérêt pour la pensée social. Je suis très intéressée par toute la pensée sociale qui a été developpé en parallèle de la révolution industrielle, au même moment où le mot design se construit et où des penseurs, citons Thomas More, Charles More… s'interrogent sur la société et proposent d'autres modèles - des utopies - ; il me semble que les mêmes questionnements nous animent actuellement, les mêmes choix se sociétés se proposent. Il ne s'agit pas d'ici de nostalgie, mais au contraire réfléchir sur ce noeud qui me semble fondamental.
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Louis Kahn: Architecture as Philosophy by John Lobell
Louis Kahn: Architecture as Philosophy
By John Lobell
Publisher: The Monacelli Press
Published: June 2020
Noted Louis I.Kahn expert John Lobell explores how Kahn’s focus on structure, respect for materials, clarity of program, and reverence for details come together to manifest an overall philosophy.
Our Days Are Like Full Years: A Memoir with Letters from Louis Kahn by Harriet Pattison
Our Days Are Like Full Years: A Memoir with Letters from Louis Kahn
By Harriet Pattison
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: October 2020
An intimate glimpse into the professional and romantic relationship between Harriet Pattison and the renowned architect Louis Kahn. Harriet Pattison, FASLA, is a distinguished landscape architect. She was Louis Kahn’s romantic partner from 1959 to 1974, and his collaborator on the landscapes of the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, and the F.D.R. Memorial/Four Freedoms Park, New York. She is the mother of their son, Oscar-nominated filmmaker Nathaniel Kahn.
Louis I. Kahn: The Nordic Latitudes
Louis I. Kahn: The Nordic Latitudes
By Per Olaf Fjeld and Emily Randall Fjeld
Publisher: University of Arkansas Press
Published: October 4, 2019
A new and personal reading of the architecture, teachings, and legacy of Louis I. Kahn from Per Olaf Fjeld’s perspective as a former student. The book explores Kahn’s life and work, offering a unique take on one of the twentieth century’s most important architects. Kahn’s Nordic and European ties are emphasized in this study that also covers his early childhood in Estonia, his travels, and his relationships with other architects, including the Norwegian architect Arne Korsmo.
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Reading Graphic Design History: Image, Text, and Context by David Raizman
Reading Graphic Design History: Image, Text, and Context
By David Raizman
Publisher: Bloomsbury Visual Arts
Published: December 2020
An innovative approach to graphic design that uses a series of key artifacts from the history of print culture in light of their specific historical contexts. It encourages the reader to look carefully and critically at print advertising, illustration, posters, magazine art direction, and typography, often addressing issues of class, race, and gender.
David King: Designer, Activist, Visual Historian by Rick Poynor
David King: Designer, Activist, Visual Historian
By Rick Poynor
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: September 2020
A comprehensive overview of the work and legacy of David King (1943–2016), whose fascinating career bridged journalism, graphic design, photography, and collecting. King launched his career at Britain’s Sunday Times Magazine in the 1960s, starting as a designer and later branching out into image-led journalism, blending political activism with his design work.
Teaching Graphic Design History by Steven Heller
Teaching Graphic Design History
By Steven Heller
Publisher: Allworth Press
Published: June 2019
An examination of the concerted efforts, happy accidents, and key influences of the practice throughout the years, Teaching Graphic Design History is an illuminating resource for students, practitioners, and future teachers of the subject.
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