Authored Books
The Militant Historian
This is the first wide-ranging analysis of Alain Badiou's use, development and transformation of the concept of history. Despite the wealth of perspectives now available on how social and cultural practices take shape, historicism still appears to be the most dominant. The Militant Historian examines this primacy and reveals how Badiou's work offers a radical riposte.
Exploring key texts in Badiou's oeuvre and how his philosophical ideas disrupt dominant conceptions of history and the role of the historian, Kerry William Purcell addresses how these ideas could transform our approaches to the historical and what it means to 'do history' as a meaningful endeavour. Adopting a chronological approach to Badiou's work, each chapter explores specific conceptual developments in his writing and how they lend themselves to a reconsideration of the subject who speaks history. From these new and disruptive modes of doing emerges the figure of the militant historian – a role with the potential to impact how we practice history outside the narrow strictures of academic life.
Josef Müller-Brockmann
One of Switzerland’s most important graphic designers, Josef Müller-Brockman (1914–1996) is the father of functional, objective design and an influential figure for generations of graphic designers around the world. He was a proponent of the grid system, which provides an underlying structure to graphic work, and he created many of the twentieth century’s most significant and memorable posters. His influence on the world of graphic design is immeasurable and his life and work will be presented in this volume for the first time in comprehensive monograph form, with an authoritative text by Kerry William Purcell, author of Phaidon’s Alexey Brodovitch, and over 400 images, ranging from finished works and design drafts to personal photographs.
Alexey Brodovitch
Alexey Brodovitch (1898-1971) is a legend among graphic designers. A Russian who fled the Bolshevik Revolution to settle eventually in Paris and then New York, Brodovitch was one of the pioneers of graphic design in the twentieth century.
Brodovitch was Art Director of Harper’s Bazaar for over two decades (1934-58); he designed and produced several exquisite and highly collectable books with collaborators such as Richard Avedon and André Kertész; he was a talented photographer himself; and, through an informal class called the Design Lab in New York, he trained a younger generation of photographers and designers who went on to become famous artists and art directors in their own right.
Weegee
This definitive monograph on the enigmatic and eccentric photographer Weegee is a collector’s item in itself. Weegee (1899-1968), known for his harrowing and poignant photographs of crime scenes in 1930s and 40s New York, is considered to be the archetypal tabloid photographer of the twentieth century.
Preferring to photograph under the cover of night, Weegee was known for his aggressive use of flash and his photographic eye was unstoppable: drawn to the grotesque, the illicit and the illegal. Named after the ‘Ouija’ board for his uncanny ability to arrive at the crime scene before the police, Weegee recorded the dark side of New York’s streets for years, becoming a prolific photographer. No sordid crime seemed to escape his flash and no crime was too gruesome to capture on camera for the papers the next day.
Weegee’s nuanced understanding of people’s simultaneous repulsion and attraction to vivid photographs of crimes of passion, murder and brutal accidents reveals him to have been far ahead of his time. Even today his photographs tirelessly retain the power to stun and to seduce: the originality of the images has elevated them in importance far beyond their use in the newspapers.
Ballet
Published in 1945, Alexey Brodovitch’s Ballet is easily among the most legendary photobooks of the twentieth century: the first and only book he authored as photographer, it was printed in a small run of a few hundred copies, and quickly became a rarity. A Russian émigré in 1920s Paris, Brodovitch began his career as a scene painter for Diaghilev’s Ballet Russes, and had firmly established himself as a leading art director and graphic designer in New York when he began photographing the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo in the mid-1930s. Shot on 35 mm film, Brodovitch’s images radically disregard conventions of “good” technique; blurred and fast-paced, they capture the motion and spirit of dance both in rehearsals and on stage. With an essay by Kerry William Purcell, this publication reproduces every page of this groundbreaking work.
Self-Promotion - Museum Für Gestaltung
Self-Promotion features a compilation of posters the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich has commissioned over the years to promote their own exhibitions. Ever since the 1910s, Zurich’s Kunstgewerbemuseum – founded in 1875 and known today as the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich – has been focusing on producing high-quality posters. They serve to project the museum’s visual identity into the public space while at the same time documenting the variety of themes represented. The posters’ high recognition factor is achieved not through rigid corporate design but by means of graphical quality, versatile design approaches, and meticulous printing. The collection can be regarded as a brief history of both Swiss poster and Swiss graphic design. It ranges from the pictorial scenes used in the 1920s and the graphic and typographic solutions following the lead of the Russian Constructivists to the Swiss Style, which dominated the Swiss cultural poster until the 1960s, and more experimental approaches from the 70s onwards. With essays by Christian Brändle, Kerry William Purcell, Corinna Rösner
Essays in Books
Herbert Matter: Visual Sensation
Two essays on the work of Herbert Matter by Kerry William Purcell. Forthcoming 2026
100 Years of Swiss Graphic Design
100 Years of Swiss Graphic Design takes a fresh look at Swiss typography and photographics, posters, corporate image design, book design, journalism and typefaces over the past 100 years. With captivating illustrations and illuminating essays by prominent experts in the field, this book, designed by the Zurich studio NORM, presents the diversity of contemporary visual design while also tracing the fine lines of tradition that connect the work of different periods. The changes in generations and paradigms as manifested in their different visual languages and convictions are organized along a timeline as well as by theme.
Including essays by Kerry William Purcell: ‘Herbert Matter’ in 100 Years of Swiss Graphic Design’ & ‘Photo-Graphics: A History of photography and design in Swiss Graphics’
Writing and Research for Graphic Designers
Including an essay by Kerry William Purcell on the British publication Alphabet & Image,
The Phaidon Archive of Graphic Design
The book features over 500 of the most iconic graphic designs from the beginnings of mechanical reproduction to the present day. Arranged in chronological order, the designs are accompanied by texts and illustrated with a range of imagery – including rarely seen historical, contextual and archival material – to shed light on their origin and development. Co-edited by Kerry William Purcell and Phaidon Press.
I Heart Design
Including an essay by Kerry William Purcell on the designs of the British TV show The Prisoner.
In the Shadow of the Mountains
Extended captions by Kerry William Purcell
Education of a Photographer
Including an essay by Kerry William Purcell on the book Ballet.
Looking at Class
Including an essay by Kerry William Purcell on the films Riff Raff and Nil by mouth.