Taryn Simon: Contraband, Hatje Cantz, 75 USD

Diving into the seedy underbelly of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Federal Inspection Site and the U.S. Postal Service International Mail Facility at JFK Airport in New York, American-born artist Taryn Simon took more than 1,000 photographs of detained or seized items trying-and failing-to enter the United States. While some items are amusingly comedic (counterfeit Louis Vuitton bags, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves nesting dolls, Chinese sexual enhancement drugs) most are alarming, or just plain revolting (live gnats, deer tongues, dirty syringes). Photographed over a five-day period in November 2009, this volume provides insight into current international desires and further elucidates Simon's interests in categorization and classification.

Portraits Of The New Architecture 2, Assouline, 75 USD

Richard Shulman knows how to capture the essence of a good building when he sees one-so much so that he specializes in architectural portrait photography. Featuring 32 architects or firms who are constantly revolutionizing, modernizing, and challenging the world of architecture, this volume showcases extraordinary designs through Shulman's strikingly beautiful interior and exterior photography, as well as original sketches and designs from the featured architects (including David Adjaye, Dominique Perrault, and Jeanne Gang, among others).

100 Contemporary Concrete Buildings, Taschen, 59.99 USD

Concrete is not a particularly sexy material to build with, nor is it inherently remarkable to look at. Yet somehow, concrete is currently having a renaissance, migrating away from its blasé stereotype toward its brutalist roots and modern adaptations. The aesthetic possibilities are endless, and this two-volume book explores the remarkable feats of contemporary concrete architecture in recent years, featuring well-known names, like Zaha Hadid, Tadao Ando, and Herzog & de Meuron. The results are beautiful, striking, and will most likely have you uttering, "I can't believe this is concrete."

Anton Corbijn 1-2-3-4, Prestel, 75 USD

Dutch-born film and music video director and photographer Anton Corbijn began photographing iconic figures of rock 'n' roll at the start of his career in the early '70s, with subjects ranging from U2 to Depeche Mode to Arcade Fire to the Rolling Stones. This volume showcases hundreds of the portraits, many of which are previously unpublished and that are often characterized by their offbeat, intimate, black-and-white aesthetics. An accompanying exhibit at The Hague Museum of Photography will be on display until August 16.

Sue Webster: The Folly Acres Cook Book, Other Criteria, 120 USD

An interesting juxtaposition between a semi-autobiography and a cookbook, British artist Sue Webster (known for her collaborative work with Tim Noble as a post-Young British Artist duo) combines a charming and humorous mixture of drawings, photographs, recipes, poems, and diary entries. "What originally started [as] a sincere cookbook, somewhere in the style of Gwyneth Paltrow's, began to melt halfway, as my artistic instincts got the better of me," explains Webster, who worked on the book from 2010 to 2014. "It turned into something more interesting and less practical, a self-confessed journey of my life through food, with added thoughts, illustrations, and ideas."

So in addition to the functional (and delectable) recipes, Webster included whimsical illustrations by herself and Noble, an original poem by PJ Harvey, and excerpts of her own writings, including two favorites: "Constipated with Carrots" and "Weed Salad."

International Pop, Walker Art Center, 85 USD

Coinciding with the first-of-its-kind exhibit currently on view at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, this catalogue chronicles the international emergence, migration, and significance of pop art beginning in the mid '50s and continuing through the early '70s. Featuring a vast array of artists who have made contributions to the revolutionary and genre-defying movement—everyone from David Hockney, Jasper Johns, Richard Hamilton, and, of course, Andy Warhol—a mix of illustrations, visual chronologies, and original essays from leading scholars provides insight on how to understand and appreciate "Pop" as we know it.