Once a symbol in home decor of culture and intelligence, art books have partially become remnants of a time before people pulled out their phones at any falter in conversation—of a time when people decided to leaf through a beautifully designed book instead of look at a screen, but as gifts or statement pieces, art books, otherwise known as “coffee-table books,” seem to have adapted from their traditional purpose of entertaining house guests to the digital age.
A quick search the perfect coffee-table book will yield results that include books of “Best of” collections, travel photographs, fashion and design ideas, darling or exotic animals, historical and pop culture icons, and every other kind of subject you can imagine. For the most meta among us, there are even art books about art books, coffee table books about coffee-table books. No matter the subject, all art books serve a dual role as personality pieces. When buying and displaying an art book, you are making a statement—“This is who I am. This is what I like, and I’m proud to show it off.”
The concept of coffee-table books can be traced back to Michel de Montaigne, a statesman, philosopher, and essayist of the French Renaissance. In his 1581 essay “Upon Some Verses of Virgil,” he remarks, “I am vexed that my Essays only serve the ladies for a common piece of furniture, and a piece for the hall.” Even though Michel de Montaigne might have had the idea first, it took another 379 years for the rest of the world to turn this concept into the art books we know today.
David Brower is usually credited with bringing coffee-table books into the mainstream. Brower was the first Executive Director of the Sierra Club and was convinced that the best way to preserve the wilderness was to show the public how beautiful and captivating natural landscapes could be. In 1960, This is the American Earth, was published. Considered the first modern coffee-table book, it featured photographs from Ansel Adams and Nancy Newhall and reawakened the environmentalist movement.
As interactive art objects, coffee-table books are inherently meant to be perused and admired by house guests, but in reality, most art books are not perused. Even though the art book’s owner is enacting a statement of expression, much of our self-expression today happens online. When we want to show off a new haircut, we change our profile picture. When we want to show that we love nature, we share a sunset or upload a hiking action shot. When we want to show that we love fashion, we share pictures from fashion week. Whenever we want to show how trendy we are, we share pictures of our home decor.
The incorporation of coffee-table books into modern life has followed the digital age. As books have found their niches in the social media world, so too, have art books. The hashtag “coffeetablebooks” currently has 47.5K posts containing pictures of well-styled living rooms and perfectly curated stacks of art books. Instead of collecting dust waiting for house guests to thumb through them, these art books are being shared with the world. An Instagram feed can be interpreted as someone’s personal art exhibit, and coffee-table books, often containing entire galleries inside of them, have found their second homes, and an additional purpose there.
Photo by Alisha Hieb on Unsplash