Taschen

This is Taschen's NYC flagship store at 107 Greene Street in SOHO. Taschen is an art book publisher started by Benedikt Taschen in 1980 in Cologne, Germany as Taschen Comics. His esoteric comic book company was saved when Taschen purchased and sold 40,000 remaindered books on Rene Magritte. With the profits, Taschen then ventured into art and photography books - first publishing a book of the photography of Annie Liebowitz. For a fascinating history of the company, click here. Now, Taschen publishes works on art, architecture, design, fashion, film, fetishistic imagery, photography, erotica/sex - what's unique is to see explicit sex sitting alongside mainstream art books. Their books are unique in many other ways - Helmet Newton’s SUMO is the largest book published in the 20th Century. It's so big in fact, that it comes with a special table designed by Philippe Starck. And then there is GOAT - Greatest Of All Time (a book about Mohammad Ali) which sells for $12,500 (collector's edition). Yet they also pride themselves as a publisher which brings forth quality art books at popular prices - many of their books sell for only $10, befitting the the word "pocket" (translation of the German "taschen"). The store, with its concrete floors, was designed by French Philippe Starck; wall murals were done by the Brazilian artist Beatriz Milhazes. There are floating bookshelves with hi-def video monitors along the top. The rear of the store has a staircase to a lower gallery/event space. From their myspace site: "I have a quiet gallery space with furniture by Tenriero, some sleek Eames chairs, and a buttery leather Arne Jacobson Egg chair." A must visit. I look forward to their upcoming book signing with Santiago Calatrava!