Out editors select their favorite new coffee table books for the holiday season.
This comprehensive monograph on the French pair's prolific body of work spans four decades of creative partnership. Gathered into one tome, their unique take on photography and painting offers some iconic shots of the likes of Madonna, Marc Almond, Matthieu Charneau, and plenty of eye candy. A limited Art edition, signed by the artists, is also available. $60, Rizzoliusa.com
The former Vogue editor extraordinaire gets a second volume of her best shoots for the American fashion bible, with Coddington's favorite pictures from the last 15 years. $125, Phaidon.com
From La Mala Noche to My Own Private Idaho to Milk, Van Sant never shied away from queering the moviegoing experience. Here, portraits of his muses past and present, including Matt Dillon, Keanu Reeves, and the late River Phoenix, and rare behind-the-scenes shots shed new light on the filmmaker's career. $45, ArtBooks.com
A new must-have for Babs superfans, this gorgeous tome gathers pictures by Steve Schapiro and Lawrence Schiller from the diva's first five years in Hollywood. A star is born. $69.99, Taschen.com
This limited-edition photo biography of the gone-too-soon HBO series features exclusive cast interviews, a 12-minute farewell DVD, and a foreword by Tales of the City author Armistead Maupin. $54, HBO.com and First Third Books.
An ode to Chinese cuisine, which foodies can (re)discover through more than 650 mouth-watering recipes. $49.95, Phaidon.com
Rock'n'roll heartthrob and silverscreen star Elvis "The King" Presley was also a bonafide style guru. This thoroughly-research survey of Elvis's best outfits on stage and in movies is further evidence of his lasting influence on men's fashion, from zoot suits to jumpsuits. $27.99, ElvisStyleBook.com
The photographer's latest monograph is dedicated to previously unseen work from her 40-year career, mostly focusing on Goldin's mistakes and photographic accidents, such a double (or triple) exposures and intuitive portraits of her friends and lovers -- but there's also new material, shot in Paris and Venice. $45, Artbook.com
Gay Gotham: Art and Underground Culture offers a timeline of New York City's queer core, placing the city as a beacon for the LGBT community since the early 1910s. Famous artists such as George Platt Lynes, Andy Warhol and Robert Mapplethorpe mingle with muses and strangers in this fascinating archive of the city's gay underbelly. $55, MCNY.org
A Bigger Book is a spectacular catalogue of David Hockney’s work. Major paintings from "Bigger Trees Near Warter" to a "A Bigger Splash" are put together with the artist's photo-composites and latest iPad drawings in a monumental, sumo-size book -- an artwork itself, weighting 75 lbs. Each copy is autographed by Hockney, and the limited "Art Edition" comes with a signed ink-jet print. $2,500 (Art Edition: $5,000), Taschen.com
READER COMMENTS (