Author: Peter Simpson Publisher: Te Papa Press

‘The painter Colin McCahon and the librarian Ron O’Reilly first met in 1938, in Dunedin, when McCahon was 19 and O’Reilly 24. They remained close, writing regularly to each other until 1981, when McCahon became too unwell to write.

Their 380 letters covered McCahon’s art practice, the contemporary art scene, ideas, philosophy and the spiritual life. Dazzling in their range, intensity and candour, the letters track a unique friendship and partnership in art.’

11 April 2024

Author: Ashia Ismail-Singer Publisher: David Bateman Ltd

'From Africa to India, the Middle East, France, the UK and New Zealand, this book will take you on a journey full of flavours and the melded cultures that are my extended family.' Ashia Ismail-Singer Author of My Indian Kitchen and Saffron Swirls and Cardamom Dust, Ashia Ismail-Singer draws on her family's rich and diverse cultures to dish up an inspired banquet where spices are the heroes and food is designed to be shared. The Laden Table is the perfect cookbook for anyone who want to create a bit of magic for their next gathering from canapes, drinks and summer salads to moreish side dishes, hearty mains and luscious cakes and sweet bites.

1st April 2024

Author: Peter Jerram Publisher: Cuba Press

Detritus are the pieces that are left when something or someone breaks, falls apart or is destroyed: gravel from rocks, the organic matter from plants. At the edge of an endangered wetland in Te Ika-a-Maui, Robin Peace writes of what is left of a country colonised not just by people but by the plants and creatures they brought with them, especially the most ignored invader: the grass that replaced Aotearoa's forests and lowlands with lawns and farms..

1st April 2024

Authors: John Gillies Publisher: Quentin Wilson Publishing

n this captivating and beautifully illustrated memoir, John Gillies vividly recalls his months as a member of the Otago University Medical Company on an active service tour of duty in South Vietnam during the Vietnam War. Still a medical student at the time, his youthful admiration of New Zealand war artists from previous conflicts adds a poignant layer to his narrative, told in brief, evocative chapters that offer tantalising glimpses of the variety of humanity he encountered during his time in Vietnam.

27 March 2024

Editor: Patrick Shepherd. Publisher: Massey University Press.

What transformation happens when writers, musicians and artists stand in the vast, cold spaces of Antarctica? This book brings together paintings, photographs, texts and musical scores by Aotearoa New Zealand artists who have been to the Ice.

09 November 2023

Editors: Carlos Lehnebach, Claire Regnault, Rebecca Rice, Isaac Te Awa, and Rachel Yates. Publisher: Te Papa Press.

This big, glorious book mines Te Papa’s collections to explore and expand upon the way we think about our botanical world and its cultural imprint.

09 November 2023

Authors: Cassandra Barnett & Kura Te Waru-Rewiri. Publisher: Massey University Press.

This richly illustrated publication examines the last 25 years of the influential Toioho ki Āpiti programme at Massey University, its global indigenous pedagogical reach, and its ongoing impacts on national and international contemporary art and cultural sectors.

09 November 2023

Author: Luke Smythe. Publisher: Massey University Press.

Gretchen Albrecht CNZM is one of New Zealand’s most influential painters. This revised edition includes her practice since 2019 and also interrogates her Illuminations work of the 1970s, which she revisited and re-presented in 2022.

09 November 2023

Author: Gregory O’Brien. Publisher: Auckland University Press.

A richly illustrated account of the life and work of one of New Zealand’s most iconic artists, Don Binney.

19 October 2023

Author: Baye Riddell. Publisher: Te Papa Press

The rise of an impressive ceramics movement is one of the more striking developments in contemporary Māori art. Clay working and pottery firing was an ancient Pacific practice, but the knowledge had largely been lost by the ancestors of Māori before they arrived in Aotearoa. After the national clayworkers’ collective, Ngā Kaihanga Uku, was established in 1987, traditional ancestral knowledge and customs and connections with indigenous cultures with unbroken ceramic traditions helped shape a contemporary Māori expression in clay.

13 October 2023

Authors: Catherine Bagnall and L. Jane Sayle. Publisher: Massey University Press.

Hot on the heels of their acclaimed 2021 collaboration On We Go, artist Catherine Bagnall and poet Jane Sayle return with another collection of water colours and poems inspired by their contemplation of nature within the context of the feminine sublime. In the Temple maintains a focus on ecological thinking, exploring intense personal connections with the natural world.

12 October 2023

Editors: Mark Amery, Amber Clausner and Sophie Jerram. Publisher: Massey University Press.

Written by leading New Zealand writers and thinkers, including Pip Adam and Chris Kraus, Urgent Moments demonstrates the vital role artists can play in the pressing discussions of our times.

12 October 2023

Author: Francis Pound & Leonard Bell. Publisher: Auckland University Press.

The first substantial monograph on the art of one of this country’s most influential artists, Gordon Walters.

14 September 2023

Authors: Nic Low & Phil Dadson. Publisher: Massey University Press.

The fifth in the ground-breaking kōrero series conceived and edited by Lloyd Jones, Little Doomsdays is another rich collaboration between an artist and a writer. This time legendary musician and painter Phil Dadson responds to a wildly innovative text that’s steeped in te ao Māori by Ngāi Tahu writer Nic Low.

14 September 2023

Author: Rebecca Fawkner. Publisher: Massey University Press.

Sixty-five ways to be an artist through the world of artist Len Lye.

14 September 2023

Author: Helen Beaglehole. Photographer: Matthew O’Reilly. Publisher: The Cuba Press.

Light and Reflections is a story of a home filled with contemporary New Zealand art and the family who collected it over two generations and nearly 90 years. Author Helen Beaglehole and photographer Matthew O'Reilly open the red front door of the Beaglehole home in Messines Road, Karori, and invite readers to experience a singular art collection.

1 September 2023

Author: Desmond Bovey. Publisher: Potton & Burton

Tongariro National Park is an artist’s exploration of the park’s plants, animals and landscapes. With 400 illustrations and an informative but accessible text, Bovey deconstructs the park’s amazing landscapes, giving us not only scenery but the bones beneath.

1 September 2023

Author: Print Council Aotearoa New Zealand. Publisher: Massey University Press.

With 166 works by 151 artists, Proof covers a huge breadth of printmaking processes and display the incredible diversity of this artform, from the more traditional woodcuts and etchings to those pushing the boundaries of print.

10 November 2022

Authors: Jane Ussher & John Walsh. Publisher: Massey University Press.

A lavish peek inside beautiful New Zealand homes by one of Aotearoa’s most acclaimed photographers, Jane Ussher.

20 October 2022

Author: Richard Wolfe. Publisher: Oratia.

Richard Wolfe's timely tour of the human place on Aotearoa, Footprints on the Land, is distinguished by art and photography that display what we've created and what we've lost.

12 October 2022