Welcome to picture book heaven
These bookstores offer a careful selection, attentive and specialized treatment and the charm of spaces dedicated to books, always warm and in constant transformation. Naos has been open for thirty-five years, Panta Rhei eleven and Ivorypress four; is about three very different proposals that have become essential in Madrid.
PANTA RHEI
Eleven years ago the bookstore and gallery Panta Rhei Opened its doors. Ingrid Acebal and Lilo Acebal are the restless entrepreneurs who launched this project specializing in publications on drawing and illustration , although they cover all kinds of disciplines, including photography, graphic and digital design, advertising, the latest in exhibition catalogs of the most alternative artists, fashion books, interior design, illustrated children's literature, magazines... A must for fans of visual culture.
It also has a exhibition hall focused on drawing where the original work of illustrators, caricaturists and cartoonists is exhibited. Their interest in illustration has led them to publish books such as The existential dog , by Zoe Berriatúa, tiny sky , by Curro Rubira and The strange adventures of Monsieur Petrantoni and the twelve thousand acronyms and sixteen thousand circumflex accents by Lorenzo Petrantoni.
the underground gallery
NAOS
Concha Amigo and Reyes Díaz-Iglesias have been at the helm of this pioneering bookstore for 35 years, a classic . Some numbers give an account of his experience: a bibliographic collection of 120,000 titles , of which 70,000 are dedicated to specialized areas and 27,000 are on their shelves. “ Books are our landscape , we turn to them when we have no knowledge of a subject or if we want to have a good time; they make us imagine, smile, understand, intrigue, even cry. We live with them and we feed on them…” declared Concha y Reyes in the commemorative publication of its 25 years of existence.
Ten years later, and despite the Internet, they continue with the same energy, choosing the best publications in the world on architecture, construction, urban planning, landscape, gardening, design, painting, philosophy and other related subjects. They also have other sections, such as essay, literature and children's literature. For the founders, the most important thing is its condition as a meeting place , a goal they achieved from the start. Several generations of architecture students and professionals have descended on its characteristic stairs of the store on Quintana Street.
Pioneer and classic: Naos is a meeting place
IVORY PRESS
** Ivorypress ** turns five years old in 2013. It arrived with force from the hand of Elena Ochoa , who marks the line of programming and development of this space which has already become an institution in Madrid. an old printing press , restored by Foster + Partners as an art gallery and bookstore specializing in photography, architecture and contemporary art , is the operations center of this patron, gallery owner and publisher.
The goal from the beginning was for Ivorypress to have its own concept and identity, to develop in a space where philanthropic projects with museum exhibits, colloquiums and seminars, classes and specialized courses, concerts and book presentations. The bookstore, Ivorypress Bookshop , It is directed by Valerie Maasburg , which, according to Elena Ochoa herself, treasures the knowledge and attitude of the best booksellers: "She is an erudite and meticulous bookstore owner, a specialist in finding the impossible."
To take a close look at the publishing projects with artists , there is a room -open to the public by appointment only- in which the books published by Ivorypress are exposed . The first work was reflections , by Eduardo Chillida. More recent works include wound by Anish Kapoor OpenSecret by Anthony Caro and debris , a Francis Bacon unpublished made with the help of The Estate of Francis Bacon.
A tour of three very lively bookstores , to look at, get to know in depth and feel the experience of all areas of creativity through the paper pages of thousands of books from all over the world made available to us.
*To know more...
- Madrid bookstores where to dip the cupcake
- Everything you need to know about literature and travel
The bookstore of the old printing house
Philanthropic love between white walls