Not only did he smuggle his pieces into four of New York City's major art museums, he's also "hung" his work at London's Tate Gallery and adorned Israel's West Bank barrier with satirical images. Banksy's identity remains unknown, but his work is unmistakable with prints selling for as much as $45,000.

    What is art? Why do we value images of saints, kings, goddesses, battles, landscapes or cities from eras of history utterly remote from ourselves? This history of art shows how painters, sculptors and architects have expressed the belief-systems of their age; religious, political and aesthetic.

    Here is the dramatic - and tragic - story of Versailles and the men and women who made it their home.

    From the popular Instagram project, @HiddenHeartbreak, comes a book for anyone who's had to get over an ex, offering honesty, laughter, and a reminder that you're not alone.Hidden Heartbreak follows the progression of a doomed relationship from blissful beginning to devastating end, capturing the all-encompassing and blinding euphoria of love as well as the crushing doubt and disappointment that accompany a breakup. In comics that are relatable, vulnerable, and often funny, as well as interactive pieces that invite readers to process their own heartbreak, Emma Lee charts a path forward, reminding us that the heart is a resilient thing.

    Acclaimed illustrator Keri Smith encourages journalers to engage in "destructive" acts-poking holes through pages, adding photos and defacing them, painting with coffee, and more-in order to experience the true creative process. Readers discover a new way of art and journal making-and new ways to escape the fear of the blank page and fully engage in the creative process.

    For all you fellow agonizers, fretters, and nervous wrecks, this book is for you. Read it and weep...with laughter

    Rowling's wizarding world to the big screen. Step off Platform Nine and Three Quarters and into the hidden world behind the scenes of the Harry Potter film series. Brian Sibley is the author of other bestselling behind-the-screen books, like The Lord of the Rings: The Making of the Movie Trilogy and The Land of Narnia. The book includes Producer's Diaries from the Harry Potter films' executive producer David Heyman.

    In this restless, swerving book simple questions—such as, Why paint a bird?—are immediately complicated by concerns of morality, human capacity, and the ways we look to art for meaning and purpose while participating in its—and our own—invention.

    It also relates the extraordinary history of the museum's collection, a collection that has enabled the Van Gogh Museum to evolve into a world-renowned centre of knowledge about Van Gogh's work and the art of his time.

    In Face Paint, Lisa Eldridge reveals the entire history of the art form, from Egyptian and Classical times up through the Victorian age and golden era of Hollywood, and also surveys the cutting-edge makeup science of today and tomorrow. Face Paint explores the practical and idiosyncratic reasons behind makeup’s use, the actual materials employed over generations, and the glamorous icons that people emulate and how they achieved their effects. An engaging history of style, it is also a social history of women and the ways in which we can understand their lives through the prism and impact of makeup.

    His magnificent new biography of Ludwig van Beethoven peels away layers of legend to get to the living, breathing human being who composed some of the world’s most iconic music. Swafford mines sources never before used in English-language biographies to reanimate the revolutionary ferment of Enlightenment-era Bonn, where Beethoven grew up and imbibed the ideas that would shape all of his future work. Swafford then tracks his subject to Vienna, capital of European music, where Beethoven built his career in the face of critical incomprehension, crippling ill health, romantic rejection, and “fate’s hammer,” his ever-encroaching deafness. Throughout, Swafford offers insightful readings of Beethoven’s key works. More than a decade in the making, this will be the standard Beethoven biography for years to come.

    His unforgettably iconic images of Sarah Bernhardt and others embody the spirit of the fin de siècle. But underneath his successful career as an artist and poster designer lay a passionate Slav nationalist whose most important and long neglected works are still being painstakingly restored and exhibited in the Czech republic. This book is the first comprehensive overview of his life and work and is published in association with the Mucha Museum in Prague.

    With honesty, poignancy, and romantic flair, Atticus distills the most exhilarating highs and the heartbreaking lows of life and love into a few perfectly evocative lines, ensuring that his words will become etched in your mind—and will awaken your sense of adventure.

    She poses the eternal question: Can you heal once you’ve been marked by a monster, or will the sun always sting?

    His whimsical and often erotic writing has already captured the hearts and minds of literally thousands of readers from around the world. He paints vivid pictures with intricate words and explores the compelling themes of love, loss, relationships and sex. All beautifully captured in poetry, prose, quotes and little short stories.