Reference Library

Milan Design Week 2026

Mindy Seu, an artist and technologist based in Los Angeles and New York City, selected Annie Ernaux’s The Years.

‘I think it’s a good way of remembering that in a time of media domination and information overload, all of the things that we feel are defining of our own characters create the connective tissue of an entire generation or society’.

—Mindy Seu

David Zilber, a Canadian chef, fermenter, food scientist, and author, selected Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.

‘I was just a chef back then cooking in Vancouver, probably 25 or something, and I think it changed how I see the world because it taught me a lot about how science works. It taught me the truth isn’t something that’s real or attainable’.

—David Zilber

Dan Thawley, an Australian-born journalist and editor, based in Paris, selected Michael Ondaatje’s In the Skin of a Lion.

‘One thing I really love about Ondaatje’s writing style is that it is so fragile, and the way he describes life is extremely poetic and intimate’.

—Dan Thawley

Nifemi Marcus-Bello, a designer based in Lagos, Nigeria, selected Jennifer Clement’s Widow Basquiat: A Memoir.

‘It talks about Basquiat’s relationship with one of his lovers, Suzanne. Basically, it’s a memoir from her perspective of Basquiat and his practice and how his prominence not only affected him, but also affected his loved ones and the relationships that he built’.

—Nifemi Marcus-Bello

Maria Arnal, a Barcelona-based artist, singer, and composer, selected Pauline Oliveros’ Sonic Meditations.

‘Pauline Oliveros was a pioneer of sonic experimentation, and I feel her legacy is still quite unknown and under-recognised. I chose it too, because it has inspired me for years’.

—Maria Arnal

Durga Chew-Bose, a writer and filmmaker living in Montreal, selected Virginia Woolf’s The Waves.

1. Aaron Rose, Beneath the Underdog: His World as Composed By Mingus by Charles Mingus
2. Akwaeke Emezi, The Icarus Girl by Helen Oyeyemi
3. Alexandra Cunningham Cameron, The Poetics of Reverie: Childhood, Language, and the Cosmos by Gaston Bachelard
4. Amalia Ulman, Microscripts by Robert Walser
5. Angelo Flaccavento, Centuria by Giorgio Manganelli
6. Anne Holtrop, Writings by Eduardo Chillida
7. Ariana Papademetropoulos, The Beach Book by Gloria Steinem
8. Celine Song, Perfume by Patrick Süskind
9. Charlie Porter, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus by Ludwig Wittgenstein
10. Chiara Barzini, Faith, Hope and Carnage by Nick Cave and Seán O’Hagan
11. Dan Thawley, In the Skin of a Lion by Michael Ondaatje
12. Darius Khondji, The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt’s New World by Andrea Wulf
13. David Zilber, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn
14. Dayanita Singh, Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke
15. Durga Chew-Bose, The Waves by Virginia Woolf
16. Eva Fàbregas, Agua Viva by Clarice Lispector
17. Faye Toogood, The Poetics of Space by Gaston Bachelard
18. Femi Adeyemi, The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction by Ursula K. Le Guin
19. Formafantasma, Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene by Donna J. Haraway
20. Franka Marlene Foth, Catching the Big Fish by David Lynch
21. Gemma Janes, Knots by R.D. Laing
22. Gyuhan Lee, I Saw the Chilseong Supermarket: A Collection of Essays (나는 칠성슈퍼를 보았다) by Lee Sumeong
23. Hania Rani, A Month in Siena by Hisham Matar
24. Hans Ulrich Obrist, Sartorius: Le roman des Batoutos by Édouard Glissant
25. Inua Ellams, Cemetery Nights: Poems by Stephen Dobyns
26. Jack Self, The System of Objects by Jean Baudrillard
27. Jasper Morrison, The Unknown Craftsman: A Japanese Insight into Beauty by Soetsu Yanagi
28. Jina Khayyer, Let Us Believe In The Beginning Of The Cold Season by Forough Farrokhzad
29. Joan Thiele, Ancestrale by Goliarda Sapienza
30. Jon Gray, The Soul Instinct by Beatrice Dixon
31. Jonathan Olivares, Factotum by Charles Bukowski
32. Kelsey Lu, Anthology of Text Scores by Pauline Oliveros
33. Laila Gohar, The Prophet by Khalil Gibran
34. Laurel Halo, In Praise of Shadows by Jun’ichirō Tanizaki
35. Luo Yang, My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
36. Lykke Li, Walk Through Walls: A Memoir by Marina Abramović (with James Kaplan)
37. Mahfuz Sultan, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard
38. Maria Arnal, Sonic Meditations by Pauline Oliveros
39. Maureen Paley, Out of This Century: Confessions Of An Art Addict by Peggy Guggenheim
40. Michael Bullock, Holy Terror: Andy Warhol Close Up by Bob Colecello
41. Mindy Seu, The Years by Annie Ernaux
42. Minjae Kim, The Logic of Disorder: The Art and Writing of Abraham Cruzvillegas edited by Robin Adèle Greeley
43. Miyako Bellizzi, Walking Through Clear Water in a Pool Painted Black by Cookie Mueller
44. Molly Manning Walker, Ask the Dust by John Fante
45. Mona Chalabi, Translations by Brian Friel
46. Muller Van Severen, Rietveld Schröderhuis, Een biografie van het huis by Natalie Dubois and Jessica van Geel
47. Nicolas Trembley, Télévision by Jacques Lacan
48. Nifemi Marcus-Bello, Widow Basquiat: A Memoir by Jennifer Clement
49. Oh Hyuk, 이상 전 시집 건축무한 육면각체 by Yi Sang
50. Rirkrit Tiravanija, The One-Straw Revolution: An Introduction to Natural Farming by Masanobu Fukuoka
51. Ronan Bouroullec, L’idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky
52. Rosalind Nashashibi, The I Ching or Book of Changes, translation by Richard Wilhelm
53. Sabine Marcelis, Potiki by Patricia Grace
54. Sarah Andelman, Les mots croisés by Georges Perec
55. Simone Bellotti, Il barone rampante by Italo Calvino
56. Sofia Coppola, Spring Snow by Yukio Mishima
57. Soshi Takeda, Opa! by Takeshi Kaiko
58. Takashi Homma, Evening Clouds by Junzo Shono
59. Vince Aletti, Notes on Camp by Susan Sontag
60. Yi Ng, The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail by Clayton M. Christensen