At Four Corners Books we seek to bring art history to life. Our aim is to explore unfamiliar corners of visual history, share the stories we find, and publish them as well as we can.
Run by Richard Embray and Elinor Jansz, we’ve been making books since 2003. Our aim is to create a space to reflect on artists and creative outputs from our recent past that have often been overlooked. It’s our mission to champion this creativity, in an accessible way.
We’re interested in those hidden pockets of art that can spark a bit of joy. Books that can amuse or educate, challenge or intrigue, delight or provoke. They are more than books about art. They are a way to experience it.
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Publishing enquiries
Our main focus is art historical, with a particular interest in British art and design from c. 1945 to c. 2000; art or design that appeared outside of the art world, or work that wasn’t made for a gallery context; ephemera, protest, overlooked work, or collections that give an insight into social history.
Our books are primarily visual, although alongside that, we love to commission historians and art historians with new and interesting stories to tell. For the most part we do not publish art theory or artists’ books. However we also occasionally commission artists to produce new illustrations for classic novels in our Familiars series. We are only able to commission titles in that series sporadically as these books are often slow to make.
Please contact us by email in the first instance. If you are a retailer wishing to make a trade order, please refer to our distributors listed below.
Books purchased through our website are sent out via 2nd Class post (in the UK) at a flat rate of £1.99 per order, and via Standard International post (rates dependent on weight and destination), for other countries.
Our store is IOSS ready, which means that for parcels sent to EU addresses, VAT is charged at the rate specified by the destination country.
If you have any queries regarding orders, please email
We believe that everyone should have access to books, so we try to make ours as affordable as possible. But to make our work reach an even wider audience, regardless of income, we supply copies of our books free of charge to lending libraries.
If you work in a library in the UK which would like to add a selection of our titles, please get in touch. It might be a university, school or public library - as long as the books are free to borrow, we are happy to supply them.
We will be pleased...
We believe that everyone should have access to books, so we try to make ours as affordable as possible. But to make our work reach an even wider audience, regardless of income, we supply copies of our books free of charge to lending libraries.
If you work in a library in the UK which would like to add a selection of our titles, please get in touch. It might be a university, school or public library - as long as the books are free to borrow, we are happy to supply them.
We will be pleased to send your library up to four books free of charge, subject to availability. If you’re a library who we have previously supplied to, that does not disqualify you from asking for further titles. Please email us at hello@fourcornersbooks.co.uk and we will do our best to send your books as soon as we can!
20.9.2018
Book Surgeries
If you are starting to work on an art book, it can be helpful to discuss the possibilities and challenges. We are inviting anyone who's thinking about a publication project to come in to our office to talk it through. The sessions will be informal, 30 minute conversations with Richard Embray and Elinor Jansz of Four Corners Books. You can bring to us any questions you might have about how to develop a project you are working on and we will offer our thoughts and feedback based on our...
If you are starting to work on an art book, it can be helpful to discuss the possibilities and challenges. We are inviting anyone who's thinking about a publication project to come in to our office to talk it through. The sessions will be informal, 30 minute conversations with Richard Embray and Elinor Jansz of Four Corners Books. You can bring to us any questions you might have about how to develop a project you are working on and we will offer our thoughts and feedback based on our experience in publishing.
These book surgeries aim to provide support with your project and offer the opportunity to talk through different approaches to book production, the options with regards to digital and self-publishing and give advice relating to distribution networks. As a small independent organisation we produce only a small number of books per year, so unfortunately we are not seeking publication proposals at this time.
Sessions will be held at the Four Corners Books office during office hours on Tuesday 4, Thursday 6, Tuesday 11 and Thursday 13th of February. Appointment times are between 11-3pm.
Email hello@fourcornersbooks.co.uk to reserve your place, specifying your preferred date. Places are limited so cannot be guaranteed.
This weekend, Saturday 28 April - 1 May, Poster Workshop, the fantastic poster collective, who are the subject of our latest book, will be returning to Camden marking 50 years since they began.
They’ll be showcasing 8ft recreations of their political posters (printed between 1968-1971) in a pop-up exhibition hosted in Camden Market's Old Art Gallery. They’ll also be reviving their poster workshop and printing posters on site, using their original silkscreen method. Watch as they recreate...
This weekend, Saturday 28 April - 1 May, Poster Workshop, the fantastic poster collective, who are the subject of our latest book, will be returning to Camden marking 50 years since they began.
They’ll be showcasing 8ft recreations of their political posters (printed between 1968-1971) in a pop-up exhibition hosted in Camden Market's Old Art Gallery. They’ll also be reviving their poster workshop and printing posters on site, using their original silkscreen method. Watch as they recreate posters whilst you wait, and take home a piece of political history.
The new book will be available for sale, hot off the press. There will also be the opportunity to meet the original team behind The Poster Workshop and hear their first hand stories from a time when they were at the heart of London’s protest scene.
On 8 March, 2018, The National Archives will be hosting a talk about its incredible collection of UFO files. Originally set up after a request from Winston Churchill, the Ministry of Defence’s UFO Desk ran for over 60 years, collating mysterious sightings and records of strange objects in the sky.
Dr David Clarke, Principal Lecturer in Journalism at Sheffield Hallam University, will talk about the remarkable stories behind some of the images from his book, UFO Drawings From The National...
On 8 March, 2018, The National Archives will be hosting a talk about its incredible collection of UFO files. Originally set up after a request from Winston Churchill, the Ministry of Defence’s UFO Desk ran for over 60 years, collating mysterious sightings and records of strange objects in the sky.
Dr David Clarke, Principal Lecturer in Journalism at Sheffield Hallam University, will talk about the remarkable stories behind some of the images from his book, UFO Drawings From The National Archives.
This Sunday, 8 October, we will be at art publishing fair Cultural Traffic, alongside other exhibitors including Dafydd Jones, Ditto, Eleanor Antin, Empty The Archive, Hysteria, Jane & Jeremy, Kim Wan, The Oxnard Plain Press, Ripopée, Morel Books, John Marchant Gallery, House of O'Dwyer / Rio Cinema, Richardson Magazine, GRRRL ZINE FAIR, Carla Borel, Accumulate, BLOW UP PRESS, Cold Lips and Baron Magazine.
