The Work of Art

“The book is a visual feast, full of drafts, sketches, and scribbled notebook pages. Every page shows how an idea becomes a finished design.” —Ari Shapiro, All Things Considered

“In The Work of Art, famed creators from the worlds of film, fashion, theater and more explore the hidden alchemy of their craft . . . [Moss] suggests that receptiveness to chance guides art as much as skill. It’s a liberating fact. He wants to demystify creation, and often succeeds. [A] vibrant, companionable and punchily precise dossier.” —Walker Mimms, The New York Times

“I understand that we are barely past the midpoint of the year, nonetheless I’m ready to declare the gift book of the year, a volume that should have broad appeal and deliver many hours of pleasure to the recipient. The Work of Art is a gorgeous book.” —John Warner, The Chicago Tribune

“Moss wants to understand what makes artists tick, and he goes about it in a pragmatic, anti-Romantic way. He treats art works as a mechanically minded kid might treat a dismantled tape deck, poking and prodding their insides to figure out how all these jangled parts make a whole.[The Work of Art] is designed to be absorbed in bursts of pleasure.” —Alexandra Schwartz, The New Yorker

“[D]elightful.” —California Review of Books

“[A] lavish work that presents the doodles and rough drafts and sketches of art in progress.” —Parade, The 27 Best Coffee Table Books of 2024

“My favorite book of the year . . . The book itself is really beautiful . . . A great bible for all of us trying to create great art.” —Daniel Pink, The Next Big Idea podcast

“[The Work of Art] is a big, beautiful thing to behold . . . It contains 43 gorgeously illustrated interviews with artists of all stripes . . . The book is, to borrow a Yeates phrase, ‘a meditation on the fascination of what’s difficult.’ And it’s a book the team here has not been able to stop talking about . . . It has changed the way we think about making the craft of this show.” —Rufus Griscom, The Next Big Idea podcast

“An incredible object [and] brilliant book . . . An amazing sort of encyclopedia, document, spiritual journey, cosmological alignment of enormous of numbers of artists from Louise Gluck to Kara Walker to Stephen Sondheim.” —Jerry Saltz, New York Magazine Senior Art Critic

“The Work of Art is a case study in creativity featuring preeminent artists of our time.” —Vanity Fair

“The Work of Art is Moss at his most curious and engaging… Seductive, enthralling and a joy to read.” —Air Mail

“This book is—and I really want people to hear it: It’s a piece of art.” —Ezra Klein, The Ezra Klein Show

“Gorgeously illustrated . . . Fabulous insights into the artist’s work.” —NBC, “Today in New York”

“Essential and inspirational . . . Throughout, you witness the duality of creation. The ways an artist absorbs and rejects. Allowing in and kicking out. Opening and closing off . . . [Moss] has a delightful rapport with the artists and is a lively, intensely interested listener. You can see why they open up to him and trust him.” —Observer

“Very much a museum, the book shows how ideas can be taken from seed to fruition, a skill Moss honed as the editor of New York magazine. Readers will linger in these galleries as they consider the ideas of more than 40 creatives working in art forms that include sculpting, painting, cooking, writing, and even building sandcastles. The artists represented here are an extraordinary group, with such luminaries as Louise Glück, Kara Walker, Stephen Sondheim, and Ira Glass. Visitors to Moss’s museum will delight in its visual styling, with every detail—font, layout, design, color—governed by a spare but finely appointed aesthetic. The artifacts that accompany each section prove fascinating . . . Moss strikes the perfect balance with his tone: breezy and conversational but driven by intellectual curiosity . . . Throughout The Work of Art, Moss chases the origin and evolution of creativity, a lofty but highly practical goal, especially to emerging creatives looking for inspiration. He may not solve that elusive puzzle, but readers will love the treasure trove of wisdom he uncovers.” —Shelf Awareness

“A panoply of artists offer a rare peek into the mysteries and mundanities of the creative process in this captivating compendium . . . Moss concludes on a fascinating note, musing that while ‘artists don’t have more interesting dreams than the rest of us,’ they do possess ‘an unusual ability to cross over—to get entrance to that inarticulable place, and then to capture what they can make use of.’ It’s a must-read for creatives of all stripes.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“In this handsome book, [Adam Moss] interviews more than 40 creators in all disciplines who ‘walk me through, in as much detail as they could muster, the evolution of a novel, a painting, a photograph, a movie, a joke, a song, and to supply physical documentation of their process.’ Many of the creators are well known, including Stephen Sondheim, Louise Glück, Twyla Tharp, and George Saunders . . . The book is amply illustrated, with sketches for dress designs, notes on animation, preliminary concepts for buildings, doodled ideas on coffee-stained napkins, and more . . . this is an inspiring work, especially for anyone struggling to create art and wondering whether the slogs and endless false starts are worth the effort. An encouraging book dedicated to the pleasures and agonies of making art.” —Kirkus Reviews

“[A] visionary book. … [Moss’s] love for conversational, witty storytelling is clear here. . . The images elevate the book to a compendium of precious ephemera. It’s possible Moss has invented a new literary genre. However it’s classified, you’ll read it cover to cover.” —BookPage

“The Work of Art by Adam Moss is a handsome, strikingly designed, color-glossy book of interviews with all manner of artists . . . Moss’s voice is distinct—​sympathetic, appreciative, confessional, generous, curious, humorous—​as he compares the anguish and achievements of others with his own continuing struggles to be a painter . . . The book is clearly a work of love . . . ” —WSHU Public Radio

“[A] revelatory window on the creative process at the crossing point of the mystical and the methodical through conversations with and reflections by some of the most beloved artists of our time—poets, painters, novelists, musicians, filmmakers, playwrights, architects, chefs—each centered on how a particular work came to be . . . The Work of Art is a magnificent read in its entirety, lush with ephemera from the understory of creativity—discarded drafts, handwritten journal pages, preliminary sketches and prototypes, notes from the subconscious scribbled in the middle of the night.” —Maria Popova, The Marginalian