Yet another tribute to art and artists, these fine books indicate that despite the market slowdown with many galleries cutting back on catalogue production, monographs and coffee-table books are here to stay.

Past Forward, on the Mysore-born Vasudev, is peppered by a minimal yet informed text by writer and stage person, Sadanand Menon. The rich glossy colour images have been photographed by Mallikaarjun Katakol so that each page of the square book is a delight for the viewer’s eye.

Interestingly, it documents only the recent works, inspired by theatre, which the artist has rendered in rich hues. “I was looking through paintings and drawings I had done from the 1960s to the 90s and I wondered how it would be if I revisited those themes,” says the 68-year-old Vasudev.

He decided to go ahead and the experience was a travelling show, after which the book is named. It visited Bangalore, Mumbai, Baroda, Kolkata, Chennai and Kochi. “The book brings together the works that were exhibited at the travelling show and puts them down for posterity to enjoy.”

Menon, in his text, lays down the unique mix of past and present in these works: “The sheer sensuousness of the manner in which it is rendered, with sinuous wrist movements over a thick later of paint using rolled up socks or other bunched textile, lends these canvases a feisty, carnival-esque feel, unseen in the early Vasudevs.”

He adds that the rearview-mirror approach the artist has endeavored has lent a new meaning to the term ‘Past Forward’ and the works themselves.

Sixty-four-year-old Arakkal’s book is more of a journey through his entire oeuvre. Published by Galerie Sara Arakkal, also in Bangalore, the monograph contains text by three writers P Surendran, a short story writer and columnist who writes primarily in Malayalam, P Sudhakaran, an art critic, and Giridhar Khanis, a freelance writer-photographer.

While Surendran traces the early days of Arakkal’s art, Sudhakaran gathers critical acclaim for his work by quoting several art critics and historians who have spoken, written about Arakkal’s work. Khanis evaluates Arakkal’s Book of References, a project that the artist began in 2001 and continued in 2005. Arakkal pays homage to the artists who inspired him in his book that is partly text and partly drawings.

The importance of an art book can not be stressed on enough, given the dearth of documentation of Indian art.