Violette Editions

Established in London in 1995 by artist and editor Robert Violette, Violette Editions is an independent publishing imprint for books on the contemporary visual arts, with an emphasis on first books by artists, collections of artist writings and innovative projects that push the limits of book design and fabrication. Violette Editions has also created, produced and advised on original editorial projects for leading brands, institutions and galleries in the arts and fashion, product design and even gaming.

Books published by Violette Editions have been distributed commercially worldwide by Thames and Hudson (an early minority investor in this imprint) and in North America by Artbook DAP. Violette Editions has also co-published titles with Thames and Hudson, The MIT Press, Rizzoli, Prestel and others.

Averaging two or three titles every year until 2014, each book was produced (and usually edited) by Violette himself, overseeing every aspect from the initial concept to the choice of materials and final delivery. Violette Editions also established its own digital pre-press operations, enabling a level of fidelity and attention to print reproduction rarely seen in commercial books. As an editor, Violette has always implemented a fierce and collaborative approach to editorial and design, pressing the artists or subjects, designers, writers and others to shape individual publications.

Violette Editions has also devised, edited, produced and packaged fine illustrated books and magazines for other publishers and for a select range of private clients including Hotel Il Pellicano, Kvadrat, Swarovski, Tate, White Cube, Bata, HSBC Private Bank, Webber Shandwick Agency, Condé Nast, Rockstar Games, Selfridges, Abbott, Brooks England, Gemfields, Paul Smith and others. (See Books created.) These projects have represented important editorial initiatives to retell stories in innovative ways.

Born in Lowell, Massachusetts, Robert began his career in 1988 at the Anthony d’Offay Gallery, London, editing and producing books and exhibition catalogues until 1995. Working with many artists including Richard Hamilton. Anselm Kiefer, Kiki Smith, Gilbert & George, Howard Hodgkin, Ellsworth Kelly, Richard Long and Gerhard Richter, Robert modernised the publishing operations at the gallery in an unprecedented manner, initiating significant commercial partnerships with trade publishers worldwide.

In 1992, Robert produced, co-edited (with Sadie Coles) and agented Jeff Koons’s first publication, The Jeff Koons Handbook, of which more than 25,000 copies were sold through co-editions with Rizzoli, Thames and Hudson and Schirmer Mosel (German translation). In 1995, Robert originated and co-published with The MIT Press both Bill Viola’s collected writings, Reasons for Knocking at an Empty House, still in print today, as well as Gerhard Richter’s collected writings and interviews, The Daily Practice of Painting (edited by Hans-Ulrich Obrist), reprinted in several editions. While setting up Violette Editions, Robert was asked by Damien Hirst and Jay Jopling to edit Hirst’s first major book, I Want to Spend the Rest of My Life Everywhere, with Everyone, One to One, Always, Forever, Now, which was published in 1997 and also remains in print today.

Away from book publishing, in 2005 Robert was a finalist for the Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust Award at Riverside Studios, London. In 2014, he was a founding adviser for Block Universe performance art festival (2015–2020). Robert has also led workshops at the BBC, University of the Arts, London, Nottingham Trent University, London College of Fashion and end-of-year crits at Royal College of Art. He is a frequent visitor to Masseria Pernice in Camporeale, Sicily, where he was invited by curator Cornelia Lauf to undertake the Sallier de la Tour family’s annual artist residency.