Whilst art books are often expensive when new and sometimes even more when old, it does not always have to be so.

Perhaps new editions have superseded the original, or maybe the print run was really large and thus a book is easily available. Sometimes the condition makes a volume less desirable if a pristine copy is important to buyers. However, being affordable does not make a book any less useful, interesting or appealing. Indeed it might mean that you are more likely to feel that it is a working tool rather than a precious object! 

For instance, the copies of books in auction houses of galleries are often virtually falling apart from heavy use, referred to time and again. Artist friends have reference works in their studios, quite frequently with a big painty fingerprint on the corners of the pages. Scholars and authors we know have copies bristling with bookmarks or marked up with notes. These are the books at the coalface which have earned their keep and justified their purchase price.

But even if the hardest your book works is to share its ideas and images with you when you need it, then it has been a worthwhile purchase. 

In this collection, we have highlighted some books and catalogues currently available which are eminently affordable but which we think still offer the reader a lot for their purchase price, however you choose to use them.