Ways of Being: a beautifully designed collection of tips for aspiring artists

Written by journalist and critic James Cahill, this beautifully designed book features interviews, archive material and quotes from the likes of Gilbert & George, Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst, Sarah Lucas, Louise Bourgeois, Robert Rauschenberg, Grayson Perry and Jeff Koons, organised into topics such as getting a first studio, finding a gallery and securing a place in the history of art.

The result is an eclectic array of creative voices, providing practical and insightful nuggets of information for any aspiring artist. Whether you’re discovering how Jeff Koons found his first day at art school, or what Andy Warhol thought about his first studio, it’s a fascinating read that you’ll find hard to put down.

The compact paperback is a piece of art itself. Designed by Bibliothèque, it resembles an instruction manual and unusually for an art book, doesn’t contain any images. Instead it is typographically lead, set in Unica77, with the cover and feature pages set in slanted Banco, and uses bespoke infographics that chart facts about the featured artists. It is printed in two Pantone colours, 430 U Grey and 286 U Blue, with each of the book’s five chapters featuring two die-cut thumb tabs, traditionally used for dictionaries.

Ways of Being: Advice for Artists by Artists is available via Laurence King.