Who would have thought that a 130 page book about a subway map could be so fascinating. This isn't, of course, any old subway map but one for the world's most complex system with 468 stations and 656 miles of track. All this is under the control of the MTA and predictably for a large organization it has a Subway Map Committee.

Peter Lloyd (a subway map fan and most of the maps in the book are from his collection) looks at one particular map: the now famous Unimark/Vignelli version from 1972. Unimark was given the job of updating all the subway signs and the brief extended to a map, the company had some experience in this area having worked on prototypes for the much smaller Washington Metro. The Vignelli map was a break from the past and presented all the lines and stations in a very modernistic format based on a forty-five and ninety degree grid, this style stretches back to Harry Beck's classic 1933 London Underground map.

The map's reception was mixed mainly because with such a complex system Vignelli's simplified version took no account of station geography and it used small type for the stations (an interesting point on page fifty-three says that the map's first edition was printed with eleven PMS colors, a bit of a printer's nightmare and very expensive, reprints were done in standard four-color). Over the years various MTA executives pushed hard for serious modifications to the map and in fact it only really lasted until 1979 when a more geographic version appeared, designed by Michael Hertz Associates. The folded print version is still used by the MTA today.

The story doesn't end in 1979 though because (rather oddly) in 2008 Men's Vogue asked Vignelli to look again at his map and produce an update and there are several fascinating pages near the end of the book detailing how Vignelli Associates Beatriz Cifuentes and Yoshiki Waterhouse completely redid the classic (the illustrations to this exercise are excellent) and of course they ignored any geographic aspect that was the downfall of the original. The story completes its circle because this beautiful looking revised map is the one used on the MTA The Weekender website to show all line and station closures each weekend due to engineering work. Part of it is used on the cover of the book.

This is a large size paperback with plenty of illustrations that relate directly to the text. Perhaps it's unfortunate that the ten or so whole page subway maps are not really big enough to read though any text references use very readable map enlargements but I did find it slightly annoying that when the copy does refer to an illustration, with a number in brackets, the number is only used with a caption and not printed next to the image.

Peter Lloyd's book will interest designers and others involved with corporate graphics and is the perfect compliment to Paul Shaw's in-depth look at the way Helvetica is used on the New York Subway System: Helvetica and the New York City Subway System: The True (Maybe) Story.

Don't be put off by the word `Impossible...' on the cover, this refers to the on-going search for peace around the world. Though the Institute Design2Context in Zurich did rather set themselves an impossible task in attempting to define Peace visually but I think they succeeded. The 1752 illustrations in this thick book cover every interpretation from the last few decades.

The coverage of Peace is broken down to 105 alphabetical sections and in the broadest possible terms, for instance B covers: Balkans (27); Beauty (12); Bomb (30); Buddha (21); Burma (12). The images are all numbered and get a caption listing on the last page of each section. The range of material is as broad as the coverage: posters (a lot) photos, newspaper front pages, cartoons, logos, paintings, et cetera.

A lot of the graphics will be familiar to you especially the sections devoted to the more general titles like Amnesty International, Cold war, Mines or Weapon. Designers from around the world have created some amazing eye-catching work whereas the images shown in country sections (Afghanistan, Chechnya, Iran or Spain for example) are much less sophisticated, down to earth and primarily designed to be used locally.

I think the authors (and Lars Muller) are to be congratulated for producing a remarkable book of historic and contemporary peaceful graphic ideas.

A hopelessly over-designed book about airports. The pages are essentially visual, full of photos and graphics and the text fills about twenty-one pages throughout the book. Because there isn't too much to read the seven chapters give a very superficial look at jet-age mobility despite the back cover saying: `Aviopolis is the first book-length critical study of how information, architecture, people and machines are converging into a new urban form dominated by logistics'.

What text there is seems as overdone as the design. Verbiage is in full flow as this example from page eighty-three: Biometric systems realize visual representations, such as the complex pattern of striations in the iris or the contours of the palm, and render them as numeric representations (statistical variables). The body that was dispersed through abstraction can now be pulled together in different formations due to the transformative power of algorithms.

The several hundred photos and graphics seem to be regarded just as eye-candy. Collections of photos are either butted together or grouped with margins between then. All the contemporary airport photos have their codes printed on them near the top left corner. The type is in yellow making many of them unreadable on a light or variable background. Graphics, like the two diagrams on page fifty-five, are far too small to be of any use to the reader, others float on a whole white page.

The book is a very poor look at an interesting subject. If only the editorial had more substance and there was a much more rigorous selection of photos and other images it could have worked.

Though this amazing book is titled Encyclopaedia I think it's worth pointing out that this is not one of those books with hundreds of tightly cropped floral images and precise technical details of each species. It is though a stunning visual record of flowers and I think more directed at those who appreciate floral art than a dry reference work.

Florist Makoto Azuma and photographer Shunsuke Shinoki have created something unique here: a book of the breath-taking sumptuous flower arrangements. All the photos were taken in a studio (between 2009 and 2012 in Tokyo) which allowed for greater control of lighting and composition. A nice touch was photographing the group and some single flowers against a black background which throws up the extraordinary richness of their colors and you really have to see some of these unbelievable colors.

The pages are divided into five sections: Whole (with thirty photos); Flock (forty-nine); Coexistence (sixteen); Hybrid (sixty-one); Appearance (forty-seven). Hybrid is the only section to have close-ups of flowers against a light background. The 203 photos reveal just over two thousand species and easily identified with the sixty-nine page index where the group shots have a large thumbnails and white numbers on the relevant flowers.

The quality of the photographs is captured by quality printing using a very impressive screen (300 I think). The only fault I have with the book is that is a thick paperback which prevents it being opened flat, had it been a hardback.

This is one of those visual books that can be opened at any page and the amazing photos will just grab you.

The book has a brilliant start with forty-three superb star portraits and I thought this book was perhaps going to be something special but after page sixty-nine it soon became clear that the rest of the book was basically made up of film stills with brief captions. Italian film critic Paolo Mereghetti seems to have taken the easy option of collating the 418 photos into ten chapters (one of which: 'Playing roles' is sub-divided into another eight sections) and writing a short essay for each though there are text pieces about some directors and stars throughout the pages.

The book is well produced with the gimmick of a magnetic opening flap (following the same format as previous titles: FashionBox; MusicBox; PhotoBox) but it is mostly a collection of commercial film stills from the movie business publicity machine. Any dedicated movie fan will have seen many of these over the years.

The book's editor Juliet Hacking has done a wonderful job in collating a very lively and accessible history of photography. Similar books that cover the broad sweep of the subject have been written by individuals who frequently show the author's bias but here thirty-one contributors write about their knowledge and enthusiasm for photography.

Though there are five basic chapters within each of these there are explored themes. For example, Chapter three covers twenty-two subjects with text and photos over two or four pages. Each of these is followed by a relevant photo, large on the page with an interesting visual feature called Focal Points where three or more thumbnails of part of the image are repeated, each with a detailed caption. I thought this visual idea was one of the strengths of the book and really pulls the reader into a photo to reveal something that isn't always apparent. I'm guessing but I think several hundred pictures have this intriguing treatment.

Another strength of the book is the comprehensive coverage. Every historically important photographer and genre is here (Avant-garde photography in Mexico gets a spread for example) but also the non-art but still creative output of fashion, advertising, conflict, press and paparazzi, globalisation. The twelve page index is also a good indicator of the depth of coverage.

This is really a dip-into reference book about photographic art from 1826 to the present. The theme essays and individual photographer's work are presented as spreads in a simple elegant layout with a 175 screen on a matt art paper. My only quibble would be the use of a flexibound cover rather than traditional hard covers.

'Photography: the whole story' could well become a standard reference title that is updated every few years to cover new developments and for the price I think its remarkable value for money.

Shahn was rather different from the other FSA photographers. He was already an established painter when he joined Roy Stryker's agency in the mid-thirties and as he said to a US Camera writer in 1946 the photos were really "to make notes for future paintings". The pictures in this book cover the years 1935 to 1938 when he more or less stopped taking photos to concentrate on painting and graphics though there is one of the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia taken in 1941.

His photos were also unique because he used a 35mm Leica with a right-angle viewer so he appeared to be taking a photo of something in front of him but actually capturing what was on his side. This was useful for taking quick shots of people without them being aware of it. Several street scene photos in the book show people with facial expressions that would change had they known they were being photographed.

All except one of the fifty photos are outdoors, either towns or agricultural areas. Several photos are from Shahn's last photo assignment for the FSA. During the summer of 1938 he photographed exclusively in the small towns around Columbus, Ohio. These photos were a departure from the Agencies usual depression images because Stryker and Shahn wanted to capture the feel of small town America, the bastion of the democratic community. Here are street scenes, schoolchildren, county fairs, shop windows, highway repairs, signs on telephone poles and folks just passing the time of day.

Shahn took about six thousand images for the FSA and many of his paintings from the late-thirties clearly show subjects and places straight out of his photos. Roy Stryker said "But something happens there in those pictures. Maybe it was in the wonderful tolerance, sympathy and feeling he had for people - for human beings." The fifty photos in the book capture Ben Shahn's love of everybody.

Despite a beautiful production I think this book is really only of interest to dedicated Weegee fans. The contents only go to prove that he didn't do anything in Hollywood comparable to his gritty and amazing New York creative output. However there is plenty in the book for his fans.

There is a complete, same size, page-by-page facsimile of his Naked Hollywood book. The Berkeley paperback edition from 1955 (with fewer pages and some different photos from the 1953 hardback) printed on cheap paper and really, I think, the contents are pretty cheap, too. The photos are nothing special and the brief captions are meant to suggest the book is a satire on Hollywood but it all seems very lightweight.

After Naked... there is an interesting Archive chapter that reproduces several magazine articles based on Weegee's California output. The photo distortions of the stars and celebrities snaps were perfect material for the down-market pulp magazines. The last few pages have a detailed Chronology of Weegee's life and an excellent listing and short analysis of the movies he worked on.

The book was produced in collaboration with an exhibition at the LA based Museum of Contemporary Art and is certainly a handsome production. Printed on a matt art with a three hundred screen with the Naked Hollywood facsimile section printed in four color (to retain the cheap paper look of the original) and I think the black and white photos throughout the book are printed four color too. As I said though the book is really for his fans, others should stick to his New York work.

This latest book from the Swiss Poster Museum looks at everyday objects and some fine examples are used to make the point. German graphic designer Lucian Bernhard is credited, in the text, as the person who developed this style of poster art that used just an image of the product and the company name. Unfortunately there are only four examples of his remarkable work in the book but other graphic designers who also created their own poster style are well represented.

Nikolas Stoecklin and Donald Brun were the leading Swiss creators of the poster painting style called the New Objectivity (a sort of very simple Photo Realism). Stoecklin has some lovely examples on the book including a stunning painting of a tube of suntan cream that has some immaculate italic lettering along the tube. Part of his poster for Binaca toothpaste is used on the cover. Several posters by Brun show his clever graphic style and one for Bell meats beautifully uses the company name and product in one simple graphic.

This style of poster art has almost vanished. To quote from Bettina Richer's short essay: 'When possession of certain things became so widespread that they could no longer be used to define social differences and with the continual growth in products in the same price and quality class, advertising actively shifted its focus to other, more emotional values'. Despite this there some posters from the last few years including a very clever one for Signal toothpaste from 2005. It just shows strips of Signal with the name created out of the red part of the paste. On the opposite page to Signal is a Bic ballpoint pen poster with the name scribbled out and it was done in 1961 yet looks like it could have been done in the last year or two.

There are ninety-two posters in the book, all in color, mostly one to a page with the rest four to a page. If you've seen others books in this series this one follows the same style. Overall a fascinating look at a past poster style.

Russell Lee was the workhorse of the FSA. His boss at the FSA, Roy Stryker, was so impressed with his professionalism and creativity that he was allowed to shoot what he wanted and in his own time, too. The fifty photos in this little book are a good sampling of Lee's huge output while he worked at the FSA. They cover the years 1938 to 1942 with photos from across the US. Included are five, in color, from Pie Town, New Mexico, The Library of Congress has over six hundred from this 1940 assignment and it's probably the largest number of photos from one place. I'm surprised that these haven't been published in a book though thirty-three are included in Nancy Wood's 1989 Heartland New Mexico: Photographs from the Farm Security Administration, 1935-1943.

Like the other books in this fascinating series the photos are presented with a simple layout and printed with a 175 screen. The essay for this book is by Nicholas Lemann.