Phaidon: past, present, future

One hundred years ago, Phaidon invented the art book.

Phaidon was founded in Vienna by Dr. Béla Horovitz, Frederick ‘Fritz’ Ungar, and Ludwig Goldscheider. Their vision was to create elegantly produced, accessibly priced art books – something that had not been done before.

Following pioneering artist monographs and E.H. Gombrich’s landmark The Story of Art, Phaidon expanded its focus with the Atlas of Contemporary World Architecture and iconic cookbook The Silver Spoon. We’ve since published best-selling, ground-breaking, and award-winning books in collaboration with the world’s most influential creators and brands – from Rihanna, Annie Leibovitz, Mickalene Thomas, and Sir David Adjaye to Massimo Bottura, JR, and Nike.

Today, Phaidon is the leading global publisher in the creative arts, with fifty million books sold in forty languages. Our innovative books on art, architecture, design, fashion, food, home and garden, and photography, as well as children’s books, are renowned for their outstanding design and content. Phaidon has also grown to include the e-commerce site Artspace and prestigious publishing house The Monacelli Press.

A century after Phaidon’s foundation, one thing hasn’t changed: the belief that books should enlighten, delight, and inspire. We pride ourselves on providing a global platform for creative expression and elevating our books into an art form themselves. We look forward to the next one hundred years.