Video game art deserves more recognition and praise than it gets. There’s a great deal of video game concept art and game design artwork created every year that goes unseen by the masses, and a large percentage of it is cool-looking art. Many games completely fabricate entire new worlds, including locations and creatures unlike we’ve ever seen before. Look at games like Halo, Dead Space, Remember Me, or WildStar.
In fact, the majority of MMORPGs like WildStar take users to very creative worlds, which is why they’re so popular. Even classic games like The Legend of Zelda and Castlevania both had tons of creative art in them. There are actually loads of video game art books for sale that contain not only actual artwork used within a game but concept art that didn’t make it into the final version that has to be seen.
While putting the list together we realized that we needed to create a seperate list of incredible video game art books. Video Games are the byproduct of brilliant artists who have honed their skill and spent hours creating sketches, 3D renders, illustrations, and more to get the final product that is seen while playing. New Virtual Library Offers over 250 Art Books for Free Download Getty Publications makes 45 years of art and conservation titles available online, with more to come.
So without further ado, here are the top 10 best video game art books for sale:
1. The Art of the Last of Us
The Last of Us won award after award after award after its release, and then it was re-released on the PS4 last year, and won even more awards. The majority of its acclaim comes from its incredibly creative post-apocalyptic world that has spectacular design. The cities re-taken by nature create fantastic artwork, and The Art of the Last of Usdelves into the character model design as well as some great concept art from the production of the game. The Art of the Last of Us makes a great conversational coffee table book.
Price: $22.59
Buy ‘The Art of the Last of Us’ here. | Buy ‘The Last of Us’ game here.
2. The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia
The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia not only contains great Zelda video game art, but it also goes into the history and design of Nintendo’s second biggest franchise throughout the years, touching on all of the Zelda games. Of course, we’re also expecting big things as far as video game art is concerned with the upcoming The Legend of Zelda Wii U game, but this book was created a year before the game was announced. Still, there is some high quality art, and it’s published by Dark Horse.
Price: $19.63
Buy ‘The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia’ here.
3. The Art of Dead Space
If you’re looking for a darker video game art book, you’ll want to check out the disturbing concept images contained with The Art of Dead Space. This collection contains over 300 images including sketches and Dead Space concept art from the Dead Space universe, including terrifying necromorphs and intimidating art of space.
Price: $25.42
Buy ‘The Art of Dead Space’ here. | Buy ‘Dead Space 3’ here.
4. The Art of the Video Game
The Art of the Video Gamewas the very first art book to celebrate video games. It contains stunning digital art from dozens of great games, including Beautiful Katamari, Half-Life 2, and even Call of Duty. It makes a great gift or coffee table book, as it creates discussion about older video game designs and how games have evolved into visual masterpieces.
Price: $29.17
Buy ‘The Art of the Video Game’ here.
5. The Art of BioShock Infinite
It’s undeniable that the design of the city of Columbia in Bioshock Infinite deserves a great deal of praise. Somehow, it felt futuristic and new even though it was set in the early 1900s. The Art of Bioshock Infinitecontains BioShock concept art and designs from the production of the game, including how the Sky-Hooks came about.
Price: $27.08
Buy ‘The Art of BioShock Infinite’ here. | Buy ‘BioShock Infinite’ here.
6. The Art of Naughty Dog
Naughty Dog has become one of the most consistent video game developer studios, having created masterpieces like The Last of Us, Uncharted and Crash Bandicoot. The Art of Naughty Dogshows games spanning from the company’s start in 1984 to its most recent hit, The Last of Us, and contains introspective essays from those that designed it.
Price: $27.76
Buy ‘The Art of Naughty Dog’ here.
7. The Art of The Mass Effect Universe
The Mass Effect Trilogy has some of the greatest character designs we’ve ever seen in video games, as well as some great locations and weapons. While we’re waiting for Mass Effect 4 (likely to be revealed at E3 2015), check out The Art of The Mass Effect Universe.
Price: $27.19
Buy ‘The Art of the Mass Effect Universe’ here. | Buy ‘Mass Effect 3’ here.
8. The Art of Destiny
Regardless of what you think of the actual Destiny game itself — I think it made false promises that it never lived up to — it’s undeniable that the artwork is fantastic. The Art of Destinyis a collection of artwork and concept art from Bungie’s latest game which contains classic fantasy and science fiction worlds.
Price: $29.61
Buy ‘The Art of Destiny’ here. | Buy ‘Destiny’ here.
9. The Art of Dragon Age: Inquisition
Dragon Age: Inquisition was my personal pick for 2014’s Game of the Year Award, as it was the best RPG we’ve seen yet. There were over 100 hours of gameplay that required you to traverse the creative lands of Thedas, a large open fantasy world that contained great landmarks, fantastical dragons and cool-looking characters. If you haven’t played Dragon Age: Inquisition yet, The Art of Dragon Age: Inquisitionwill definitely make you want to play it.
Price: $27.76
Buy ‘The Art of Dragon Age: Inquisition’ here. | Buy ‘Dragon Age: Inquisition’ here.
10. The Art of Remember Me
To me, the Remember Me game was the most underappreciated game of the Xbox 360/PS3 era. It had one of the most creative, futuristic worlds that we had seen in video games for quite some times. It was set in Neo-Paris (Paris in the year 2084), so you can probably imagine the sorts of modern video game art that this book holds. Nilin, the game’s protagonist, was a strong female character that had a cool look to her. The Art of Remember Meis published by Dark Horse (so you know its pages are of the highest quality), and it perfectly captures the dystopian society contained within the game. My only complaint with this book is that it isn’t a collection of huge hangable video game posters (because I’d create a whole Remember Me art room).
Price: $28.18
Buy ‘The Art of Remember Me’ here. | Buy ‘Remember Me’ here.
Writing about visual art, perhaps more than any other cultural category, tends toward the incomprehensible and, well, artless. Too often it’s either jargon-laden and academic or deadeningly explanatory. But there are of course noteworthy exceptions to this norm, and we rounded up ten of the best. Here are our favorite art books — a term that encompasses books about art, books by artists, and books of art — from 2016.
1. The Art of Rivalry: Four Friendships, Betrayals, and Breakthroughs in Modern Art by Sebastian Smee
Smee, a Pulitzer Prize–winning art critic for the Boston Globe, dishes out the dramas of four famous artistic rivals — Pollock and de Kooning, Picasso and Matisse, Manet and Degas, Freud and Bacon — with page-turning zeal. The book is dense with juicy tidbits — like how Picasso used to throw darts at a Matisse painting in his living room — that brings to light the interminable power and pettiness of the male artistic ego.
Smee, a Pulitzer Prize–winning art critic for the Boston Globe, dishes out the dramas of four famous artistic rivals — Pollock and de Kooning, Picasso and Matisse, Manet and Degas, Freud and Bacon — with page-turning zeal. The book is dense with juicy tidbits — like how Picasso used to throw darts at a Matisse painting in his living room — that brings to light the interminable power and pettiness of the male artistic ego.
2. Francis Picabia: Our Heads Are Round So Our Thoughts Can Change Direction
To appreciate the wildly eclectic range of the French painter Francis Picabia, one must see his art in survey form — either at the outstanding retrospective currently up at MoMA, or in this catalogue for the show, illustrated with 500 images mapping the painter’s zigzagging forays into Surrealism, Impressionism, graphic art, Dada, and beyond.
To appreciate the wildly eclectic range of the French painter Francis Picabia, one must see his art in survey form — either at the outstanding retrospective currently up at MoMA, or in this catalogue for the show, illustrated with 500 images mapping the painter’s zigzagging forays into Surrealism, Impressionism, graphic art, Dada, and beyond.
3. Eye of the Sixties: Richard Bellamy and the Transformation of Modern Art by Judith E. Stein
This comprehensively researched book looks at the groundbreaking vision of art dealer Dick Bellamy, who ran the avant-garde Green Gallery on 57th Street from 1960 to 1965. The space served as a launchpad for now-legendary names like Donald Judd, Claes Oldenburg, Dan Flavin, and James Rosenquist, of whom this book offers fascinating glimpses, as seen through the lens of their fearless champion.
This comprehensively researched book looks at the groundbreaking vision of art dealer Dick Bellamy, who ran the avant-garde Green Gallery on 57th Street from 1960 to 1965. The space served as a launchpad for now-legendary names like Donald Judd, Claes Oldenburg, Dan Flavin, and James Rosenquist, of whom this book offers fascinating glimpses, as seen through the lens of their fearless champion.
4. Reductionism in Art and Brain Science: Bridging the Two Cultures by Eric Kandel
The Nobel Prize–winning neuroscientist has been uncovering the links between art and brain science for years, most famously in his superb 2012 book The Age of Insight. He has now turned his attention to the ways that reductionism is a skill that has been employed to revelatory effect by both scientists — his prime example is research using sea slugs — and modern artists, like Mark Rothko and Dan Flavin, who distilled art to its basic elements of color, form, and light.
The Nobel Prize–winning neuroscientist has been uncovering the links between art and brain science for years, most famously in his superb 2012 book The Age of Insight. He has now turned his attention to the ways that reductionism is a skill that has been employed to revelatory effect by both scientists — his prime example is research using sea slugs — and modern artists, like Mark Rothko and Dan Flavin, who distilled art to its basic elements of color, form, and light.
5. Mounting Frustration: The Art Museum in the Age of Black Power by Susan E. Cahan
A Yale historian reveals how art museums lagged woefully behind even the military and public schools when it came to integrating African-American artists after the Civil Rights movement. She looks at blundering oversights like the Met’s 1969 “Harlem on My Mind,” which failed to include the neighborhood’s black artists, and the notorious “Primitivism” show at MoMA in 1984, which paired “low” tribal artifacts with the “high” art it inspired in the West. Protest histories like this feel like more vital than ever as we prepare to set forth into the long winter of unrest ahead.
A Yale historian reveals how art museums lagged woefully behind even the military and public schools when it came to integrating African-American artists after the Civil Rights movement. She looks at blundering oversights like the Met’s 1969 “Harlem on My Mind,” which failed to include the neighborhood’s black artists, and the notorious “Primitivism” show at MoMA in 1984, which paired “low” tribal artifacts with the “high” art it inspired in the West. Protest histories like this feel like more vital than ever as we prepare to set forth into the long winter of unrest ahead.
6. Before Pictures by Douglas Crimp
Covering the years immediately preceding the legendary “Pictures” show that Crimp curated in 1977, this memoir recalls what life in New York City was like during one of its most fabled heydays. Crimp recounts his encounters with the art of Merce Cunningham and Agnes Martin, and charts the building of a queer art scene just before the ravages of AIDS nearly laid it waste. The result is a vital piece of cultural history as much as it is a personal one.
Covering the years immediately preceding the legendary “Pictures” show that Crimp curated in 1977, this memoir recalls what life in New York City was like during one of its most fabled heydays. Crimp recounts his encounters with the art of Merce Cunningham and Agnes Martin, and charts the building of a queer art scene just before the ravages of AIDS nearly laid it waste. The result is a vital piece of cultural history as much as it is a personal one.
7. Chardin and Rembrandt by Marcel Proust
Unearthed as part of David Zwirner Books’ series on ekphrasis — a Greek word for the process of describing a work of art, sometimes to such an imaginative degree that the writing itself takes on a dimension of the artwork — Proust wrote this essay 20 years before publishing In Search of Lost Time. One gleans in the youthful text how Proust began his perceptual education, translating from art into prose the “brilliant, compelling language” of Chardin and the “gleam and frisson” of Rembrandt.
Unearthed as part of David Zwirner Books’ series on ekphrasis — a Greek word for the process of describing a work of art, sometimes to such an imaginative degree that the writing itself takes on a dimension of the artwork — Proust wrote this essay 20 years before publishing In Search of Lost Time. One gleans in the youthful text how Proust began his perceptual education, translating from art into prose the “brilliant, compelling language” of Chardin and the “gleam and frisson” of Rembrandt.
8. Les diners de Gala by Salvador Dalí
Named for his beloved wife Gala, this 1973 cookbook, newly reprinted by Taschen, is an ode to the extravagant Surrealist dinner parties the couple famously threw. The collection includes 136 recipes — illustrated by Dalí — including such delicacies as Toffee with Pine Cones, Frog Pasties, and Bush of Crayfish in viking herbs. The book comes with a personal warning from Dalí: “If you are a disciple of one of those calorie-counters who turn the joys of eating into a form of punishment, close this book at once.”
Named for his beloved wife Gala, this 1973 cookbook, newly reprinted by Taschen, is an ode to the extravagant Surrealist dinner parties the couple famously threw. The collection includes 136 recipes — illustrated by Dalí — including such delicacies as Toffee with Pine Cones, Frog Pasties, and Bush of Crayfish in viking herbs. The book comes with a personal warning from Dalí: “If you are a disciple of one of those calorie-counters who turn the joys of eating into a form of punishment, close this book at once.”
9. How to See: Looking, Talking, and Thinking About Art by David Salle
This collection of essays by the virtuoso painter provides the rare mix of eminently readable art criticism and close scrutiny of process and technique. His admiring descriptions of the “wrist-inflected” brushstrokes of Dana Schutz and the quality of paint that is applied “from the shoulder, moving your whole arm,” as Alex Katz does, allows the reader to momentarily inhabit the consciousness of an artist and to rediscover painting through his eyes.
This collection of essays by the virtuoso painter provides the rare mix of eminently readable art criticism and close scrutiny of process and technique. His admiring descriptions of the “wrist-inflected” brushstrokes of Dana Schutz and the quality of paint that is applied “from the shoulder, moving your whole arm,” as Alex Katz does, allows the reader to momentarily inhabit the consciousness of an artist and to rediscover painting through his eyes.
10. Social Medium: Artists Writing, 2000–2015, edited by Jennifer Liese
Artists themselves rarely have a voice in traditional critical forums, but they’ve been writing for eons — in journals, manifestos, blogs, alternative magazines — and always will. In this anthology, Liese, director of the RISD Writing Center, assembled 75 recent texts from artist-writers, including Glenn Ligon on David Hammons, Tania Bruguera’s manifesto on artists’ rights, Adam Pendleton on Black Dada, and Molly Crabapple on Guantánamo. The writings are by turns provocative, playful, erudite and, at their best, plain weird.
Artists themselves rarely have a voice in traditional critical forums, but they’ve been writing for eons — in journals, manifestos, blogs, alternative magazines — and always will. In this anthology, Liese, director of the RISD Writing Center, assembled 75 recent texts from artist-writers, including Glenn Ligon on David Hammons, Tania Bruguera’s manifesto on artists’ rights, Adam Pendleton on Black Dada, and Molly Crabapple on Guantánamo. The writings are by turns provocative, playful, erudite and, at their best, plain weird.