Art books at the 2025 Book Fair: prices, featured titles, and rarities

At the Book Fair, there are books of all kinds. You can find a wide variety of titles on poetry, literature, short stories, novels , essays, fiction, non-fiction, manga, and comics. There are also books on journalism, psychology, history, education, and self-help, among other genres. But what about art books ? Where are they, and what are their prices?

Clarín toured the Fair and found a wide variety of publications covering all kinds of artistic expression: visual arts, sculpture, painting, design, photography books, and poetry written by artists, painters, sculptors, and other leading figures in the art world. There are both domestic and imported books.

Upon entering the Fair through the main entrance (on Plaza Italia), we can find several interesting national works at the Pride and Prejudice stand (Stand 3116, Ochre Pavilion). There is A Body Inside Me , by Federica Baeza, former director of the Palais de Glace, published by Editorial Mansalva. A book that is “queer, political, transvestite, powerful, travesti, gay, identity-based, sensitive, bold, and necessary,” according to the definition of visual arts graduate, teacher, and writer Merie Gouiric.

“Feda Baeza improves everything she touches, and this book, and its stories, are proof of that. She improves the night and the dawn, she improves a first time, she improves an encounter, she improves a voice, and she improves fear. She improves a childhood memory, a light coming through the window, the glitter on a lover's face, and the gesture of brushing a wig in the air,” she summarizes on the back cover. The price? $23,800.

At the same booth, you can also find Feminism and Latin American Art: Stories of Artists Who Emancipated Their Bodies , by the prestigious art historian, researcher, and curator Andrea Giunta , published by Siglo XXI Editores.

Her work presents a theoretical and quantitative overview of the women's scene in the visual arts and examines the work of artists who contributed to building an emancipatory imagination in Latin America. She explores the careers of Colombian Clemencia Lucena, Argentine María Luisa Bemberg, the photography of Narcisa Hirsch, the development of artistic feminism in Mexico, and the work of Nelbia Romero and Paz Errázuriz in the dictatorial contexts of Uruguay and Chile as milestones in this history.

Giunta also explores new themes such as motherhood, harassment, prostitution, divergent bodies, and new forms of representation that challenge not only the differences between feminist and feminine art, but also the power relations embedded in ways of seeing and showing. She also addresses invisibility and the various forms of violence perpetrated against women, among other topics. Feminism and Latin American Art costs $29,990.

Control or No Control (Mansalva) is another of the texts highlighted in Pride and Prejudice. These poems are written by the Argentine artist, visual artist, writer, and curator Fernanda Laguna, dedicated to the world of feminism and art. Highlights include "The Housewife's Poem" and "To My Feminine Pad." The book is priced at $23,800.

Without a doubt, La Paragráfica is the best place. Booth 310 (Blue Pavilion) features more than 2,500 titles of all kinds: visual arts, sculpture, editorial design, textile design, graphic design, retail design, fashion, and photography, among others. There are textbooks and more technical ones based on these disciplines.

With over 45 years at the Fair, La Paragráfica is a beacon of art books, selling and exhibiting imported art books across the board.

Speaking of photography, here are books by exceptional photographers such as Sebastiao Salgado, Helmut Newton, Josef Kudelka, Paul Strand, and Walker Evans . According to experts, they are classified as "gems" of the seventh art. These copies are difficult to find in Argentina.

Of course, in the visual arts, there are books chronicling the works of Mark Rothko, Matisse, Henri Matisse, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and others dedicated to the artistic career of Belgian painter Pieter Brueghel or the Italian Amedeo Modigliani . There are also books on Expressionism and universal artists such as Goya, Picasso, Albrecht Dürer, Anselm Kiefer, and Van Gogh.

"There are also books by artists who are little-known from a general perspective but very specific from a particular and niche perspective related to art," they comment at the stand.

As for sculptures, there are books by Auguste Rodin and Alberto Giacometti . There's also a single copy by the notable American painter Edward Hopper, one of the most acclaimed artists at the booth. A tremendously nostalgic book about paintings, with incredible handling of lighting. The price? $145,000.

Also notable are books by illustrators Norman Rockwell (illustrator of The New Yorker 100 years ago) for $100,000 and $88,000, and several fashion books on the history of Christian Dior and Yves Saint Laurent , to name a few.

All books are imported, with prices ranging from $30,000 to $300,000. Payments can be made at the Fair booths with cash, credit or debit cards, or virtual wallets, or through the Banco Provincia promo, with a 10% discount plus six interest-free installments.

"We try to stock the best of what's published, and no one dares to bring it. That's the bookstore's concept: to bring unique things," explained the stand manager.

Riverside (stand 816, Green Pavilion) has a special counter for art books of all kinds, so you can delve into their pages.

There's the book Photography by Lee Miller, with a foreword by British actress Kate Winslet, and Neutra: Complete Works , an architectural book featuring nearly 300 homes, schools, and public buildings illustrated with more than 1,000 photographs and accompanied by text in German, French, and English. Both are published by the German publisher Taschen and cost $80,000 and $59,000, respectively.

In Riverside, there are more books or "gems" about art in all its forms, such as the wonderful The National Gallery (Paintings, People, Portraits) for $385,000; Queen; Small World , by Australian photographer Anne Geddes . Through her magical lens, she creates beautiful portraits of newborn babies disguised as bees or "wrapped" in cocoons, in some cases. She also describes the pregnancy and motherhood process in many women posing with their bellies or next to their babies. There are never-before-seen photos in this extraordinary book, a tribute to (and defense of) the most beautiful, smallest, and vulnerable people who are the future of humanity, for $106,000.

Queen. The Story Behind Their 188 Songs , by Benoit Clerc (Blume Publishing), comes with the story behind each song, along with photographs and portraits of Freddie Mercury and the rest of the members of the legendary English band for $100,000.

There's also Unconfessed Confessions, by French photographer and writer Claude Cahun : a reinterpretation of the tradition of confessions, crafted with diary fragments, letters, poems, aphorisms, and dialogues, where reality and fiction blend to create a more "true" portrait of the author. An autofiction before autofiction existed. According to specialists, this book is hard to find and costs $31,000.

There are more art books at the Feia: Chai (1720, Yellow Pavilion) features Anne Truitt’s Daybook: Diary of an Artist (translated by Virginia Higa), for $25,500, and two large books by Celia Paul: Letters to Gwen John and Self-Portrait (both translated by Esther Cross), for $26,000 and $24,000, respectively.

At the FERA booth (2131, Yellow Pavilion) are Atelier de Arte, by Victoria Benaim and Magu Villar : an illustrated activity book with a brief biography of 15 iconic artists of all time: including Monet, Van Gogh, Gustav Klimt, Matisse, Picasso, O'Keefe, Miró, Dalí, Frida Kahlo, Andy Warhol, Banksy and Marta Minujín y Banksy , for $34,000. They also have a podcast with the same name as the book and talk about art on Spotify.

Also notable are Creative Documentation Log , written and illustrated by Magu Villar, for $34,000, and Readers: A Diary , a sketchbook of isolated notes by visual artist, cultural manager, and graduate in Educational Sciences , Milagros Pochat . The artist's journey toward her first solo exhibition, in which she portrays twenty-two women reading and paints, for the first time, her self-portrait, for $22,900.

The National Museum of Fine Arts (MNBA) has its own space at the 2025 Book Fair. Booth 3111 is located a few meters from the entrance, in the Ochre Pavilion. Part of Sara Facio 's (1932-2024) photography collection is on display there.

This is a set of 24 images from diverse authors, eras, and genres that commemorates the work of the iconic Argentine manager and photographer, who was responsible for creating the Bellas Artes Museum's photographic collection, which houses more than 1,500 photographs by local and international artists produced between the 19th century and the present day.

The Bellas Artes stand displays photographs by Stephen Althouse, Manuel Álvarez Bravo, Claude Batho, Eduardo Grossman, Annemarie Heinrich, André Kertész, Juan Travnik, Grete Stern, and Sara Facio , among others. There is also a display case with a selection of catalogs published in recent years.