From our studio shelves — volumes that trace the ideas, influences, and cultural undercurrents behind our work.

A pivotal figure in twentieth-century sculpture, Barbara Hepworth (1903–1975) shaped modernism through carved forms defined by clarity, weight, and the tension between mass and void. Working in stone, wood, and bronze, she pursued an elemental vocabulary—organic, pared back, and deeply attuned to landscape, space, and human experience. One of the few women of her generation to achieve international acclaim in a male-dominated field, Hepworth extended this vision beyond individual sculptures to the environments they inhabited, creating settings in which form, light, and surroundings remained in constant dialogue.

Published in 1961, Barbara Hepworth—written by her close friend and art historian J.P. Hodin—offers an early, intimate portrait of her work. Though shaped by the language and assumptions of its time, the book provides a rare glimpse into how Hepworth’s practice was understood in her own moment, pairing Hodin’s reflections with photographs of her sculptures and the environments in which they were made and shown.

“Hepworth desired to create things that would express both the magnificence of the human character as she knew it and the purity of the world in nature.”

“She felt that to the purposefulness and dynamic energy of life she had to add the sense of a new beauty and harmony; that it was her calling to restore the wholeness of Being.”

We hope you’ll consider supporting local, independent bookstores and publishing houses. For architecture and design-related books, we love Hennessy + Ingalls Bookstore in Los Angeles. Explore their complete catalog, including books on Hepworth.

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Michaele

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