Few materials have experienced a similar revaluation in contemporary art as clay has in the past few years. This timely publication accompanies a large-scale exhibition at the Hayward Gallery, London, exploring how contemporary artists are using clay and ceramics in inventive and surprising ways, and pushing the boundaries of the medium. Featuring the work of over 20 international artists-from Grayson Perry to Woody De Othello-an introductory essay by curator Cliff Lauson, a text on the history of fine art and ceramics by writer and critic Amy Sherlock, and a round table discussion with artists from the exhibition, this catalogue is a meaningful contribution to the ongoing conversation about the relationship between art and craft.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of the fabric works from the last two decades in the career of legendary artist Louise Bourgeois. "I've always had a fascination with the needle," she said, "the magic power of the needle. The needle is used to repair damage. It's a claim to forgiveness." This body of work began when the artist started incorporating clothes from all stages of her life into her art, and later expanded to include a range of other textiles such as bedlinen, handkerchiefs, tapestry, and needlepoint. The fabric works mine the themes of identity and sexuality, trauma and memory, guilt and reparation, and serve as metaphors for emotional and psychological states. The catalog - which accompanies the exhibition at the Hayward Gallery, London and the Gropius Bau, Berlin - features works from numerous series, including the monumental Cell installations, figurative sculptures, and abstract drawings.

Definitive monograph on America's most challenging and influential artist Los-Angeles-based artist Paul McCarthy (b.1945) creates Disneyesque installations, sculptures of animal/vegetable/human hybrids and slapstick performances in a purge of a national subconscious. The psycho-sexual desires and anxieties induced by the media and the built environment of contemporary America emerge in his collisions of plastic prosthetic limbs and condiments that stand in for bodily fluids. These works have been variously deployed: through live actions, often documented on video, and more recently in outsized figures and artificial rural environments, combined in overtly sexual ways. McCarthy's work echoes that of European artists such as Joseph Beuys or the Viennese Aktionistes, but gives 'action art' a postmodern twist. This new revised and expanded edition includes contributions by luminaries such as Kristine Stiles, Ralph Rugoff, Massimiliano Gioni and Robert Storr.

Magical images that defy time from the grand master of conceptual photography. Through his expansive exploration of the possibilities of still images, the internationally renowned artist and photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto has created some of the most alluringly enigmatic photographs of our time; pictures that are meticulously crafted and deeply thought-provoking, familiar yet tantalisingly ambiguous. Hiroshi Sugimoto: Time Machine is a comprehensive survey of work produced over the past five decades, featuring selections from all of Sugimoto’s major photographic series, as well as lesser-known works that illuminate his innovative, conceptually-driven approach to making pictures. Texts by a collection of international writers, artists and scholars - including Geoffrey Batchen, Edmund de Waal, Mami Kataoka, Ralph Rugoff, Lara Strongman and Margaret Wertheim - will highlight his work’s philosophical yet playful inquiry into the nature of representation and art, our understanding of time and memory, and the paradoxical character of photography as a medium suited to both documenting and invention.

British artist David Shrigley (b. 1968, Macclesfield) is best known for his humorous drawings that make witty and wry observations on everyday life. Currently based in Glasgow, he trained as a fine artist and his deliberately crude graphic style gives his work an immediate and accessible appeal, while simultaneously offering insightful commentary on the absurdities of human relationships. This book, published on the occasion of his first major survey show in London, will cover the full range of Shrigley's diverse practice which extends far beyond drawing to include photography, books, sculpture, digital animation, painting and music. It will also feature exciting new commissions and site specific installations. In addition to exhibiting internationally, he regularly contributes cartoons for the Guardian Weekend magazine and the New Statesman, and recently created an animation for the UK Save the Arts campaign.

Circus Americanus is a riotous excursion through America's changing visual landscape. Exploring its remote corners and bizarre byways, Ralph Rugoff takes us on a tour of theme park slums and mystical police cars, futurist war and the "aesthetics of safe chaos." With an idiosyncratic eye for detail, he maps a culture in which "reality" has become just another theme, revealing an America much stranger than the glamorous kitsch of its surfaces. Whether he is writing about Las Vegas casinos, forensic cartoons, the enigma of Napoleon's preserved penis or the aesthetics of sewage treatment, Rugoff considers everyday marvels with a concern for how we live together in a world beyond belief.