Home decor: Set the tone with an artful local tome | Features

If, as the adage goes, there’s a lid for every pot, then surely there is a book for every coffee table. Perhaps that’s why these striking and flip-friendly tomes have long been a staple of smart décor. Eye-catching and conversation-starting, a thoughtfully selected and artful edition that holds prime parlor real estate also tips off guests to a host’s abiding passions.

Around these parts, the array of publications by artists, photographers and others connected with the Lowcountry speaks to how this region is rich fodder for making statements. (Oh, and here’s a holiday hint: They are present-perfect, too.) 

Following are few that have come out over the past year. And remember: Charleston boasts multiple independent bookstores. When possible, consider going local with your purchases, too, either through the store or by way of Bookshop.org, which supports local bookstores with each purchase.

The rugged individualist

Timed with the Manning Williams retrospective at the Gibbes Museum of Art in early 2021, Evening Post Books (which is owned by the same company as The Post and Courier) published “Manning Williams: Reinventing Narrative Painting.” It shares sweeping spreads of Williams’ works, while also serving as the first biography written about the late artist known for magnificently channeling his classical training on the inimitable landscape, layered history and the looming development of the Lowcountry. List price is $60 for the hardcover edition, available in-store at Blue Bicycle Books, Buxton Books and Evening Post Books. 

The roving eye

In “My Lazy Eye,” celebrated Charleston photographer Jack Alterman captures a stunning array of places and people, pivoting from the local to the global with seasoned aplomb. Juxtaposing the familiar faces and facades of Charleston with evocative shots from travels around the world, in this publication his work comes together to illustrate how unexpected visual threads connect us all. List price is $65, available in-store at Buxton Books and online at jackalterman.com.

The modernist

“Romare Bearden: Abstraction” was created as the catalog for the touring exhibition organized by the American Federation of Arts and the Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, State University of New York, which made its debut at the Gibbes Museum of Art. While Bearden is known mainly for his collage work depicting African American life, what is lesser known is that the Charlotte-born, Harlem-prominent artist also engaged in meaningful ways in abstraction, granting him a rightful place in the trajectory of the modern art movement. This vivid, slim catalog makes that place abundantly clear. List price is $30, available at Gibbes Museum of Art.

“Jasper Johns: Mind/Mirror” is the catalog for the current retrospective of Johns now on view at both the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Pennsylvania Museum of Art. The image-rich offering spans the prolific career of the world-famous artist raised in South Carolina, who for a key moment in his international emergence spent time painting on Edisto Island. List price is $60, available at whitney.org.

The feathered friend

Charleston-based photographer Cacky Rivers has long trained her lens on bird species and habitats native to South Carolina, with a keen eye also on their conservation. Her first book of photography, “Grounded in Flight,” features exclusive photos of the more than three dozen shorebirds, raptors, songbirds, ducks and other species native to the Lowcountry. Bound in hunter green leather with a cover designed by local artist Lese Corrigan, it’s a must for feathering a South Carolina nest. List price is $45, available in-store at Buxton Books and online via cackyriversphotography.com.

The Gullah spirited

In “Gullah Spirit” (The University of South Carolina Press), renowned artist Jonathan Green shares 179 vibrant new paintings reflecting the Gullah life and culture realized in the artist’s bolder brush strokes, a use of depth and texture, as well as his signature use of a vibrant palette. The works depict everyday rural and urban environments to portray the richness of community. List price is $49.99, available in-store at Blue Bicycle Books and Buxton Books or online at Itinerant Literate via bookshop.org.

The rural rocker

If you don’t know the work of graphic designer and illustrator Gil Shuler, well, you haven’t left the house. Time and again, his visual wit showcases all manner of Charleston enterprises and happenings for the inspired undertakings that they are. “Barn Jam Posters” shares the story in art and words of the concert posters he has designed and illustrated weekly for the Barn Jam series at Awendaw Green since 2008. Published last December, Shuler’s debut book includes 180 poster selects, which together demonstrate his limitless capacity for creativity and joy. List price is $30, available online at gilshulerdesign.com and in-store at Blue Bicycle Books.

The Renaissance fan

Want to learn about that much-referenced, transformative time known as the Charleston Renaissance? Go ask Alice Ravenel Huger Smith. She’s the topic of “Alice” (Evening Post Books), a compelling chronicle of her life and work written by Dwight McInvaill in partnership with Smith’s great niece Anne Tinker and great-great-niece Caroline Palmer, which offers fresh insight and deep context to the intrepid artist. Available in-store at Evening Post Books, Blue Bicycle Books and Buxton Books and online at Itinerant Literate via bookshop.org.

And in another stunner by way of the Gibbes, “Lasting Impressions: Japanese Prints from the Reads-Simms Collection” is the catalog for the 2021 exhibition of the same name. Edited by Sara Arnold and Stephen Hoffius, the publication showcases dozens of works by Japanese artists such as Katsushika Hokusai and Utagawa Hiroshige, who so inspired those of the Charleston Renaissance. List price is $45, available at Gibbes Museum of Art.

Follow Maura Hogan on Twitter at @msmaurahogan.