London/Los Angeles, shortly before the Holidays, 2023

Dear Bookworms...

As cultural archaeologists, our mission for over 40 years has been to share formative artists and captivating subjects with the world. We travel far and wide and into the largest and raunchiest of archives to complete the quest that you, our audience, entrust us with.

This year, we celebrate the larger-than-life Arnold Schwarzenegger, honor the work of architectural giant Norman Foster, pay tribute to the undisputed Lord of Fantasy Art, Frank Frazetta, and, following the success of The Ultimate Sneaker Book, created a guide to the world’s greatest sneaker collectors with Sneaker Freaker.

It is our goal to make the greatest books on the planet at every price and every size because we want to have something for everyone. The production of our Collector’s Editions can require a no-limit budget policy, and while they make their lucky owners feel good about their often-appreciating assets, they also allow us to extend the benefits of the generous and lavish production costs initially put towards creating the Collector’s Editions to book lovers with less extravagant budgets through the subsequent release of affordable trade editions.

We take pride in offering smaller, condensed, yet equally well-produced versions of our Collector’s Editions with much gentler price tags. In homage to Annie Leibovitz’s legendary SUMO, originally released in 2014, her career-spanning book is now available in an affordable resale version. And to the delight of our collectors, four limited edition prints of the SUMO cover portraits are also available, from Keith Haring to Whoopi Goldberg.

We hope to see you in our newly redesigned and expanded stores in Paris and London, and stay tuned for our fine art jewelry collaboration with Ai Weiwei, endorsed by the inimitable Naomi Campbell.

Peace,
Marlene and Benedikt Taschen
aka “The Commonists”