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Publication Launch

Art Catalogue Launch Press Release Template and Example

A catalogue, monograph, artist book or journal issue. Books editors work three to four months ahead, so this is the release with the longest lead time in the art world.

The example

Galería Méndez Publishes First Monograph on Maria Alvarez

"Luminous Threads" collects ten years of weaving and drawing, with essays by Inés Cardoso and Rosa Iglesias

Galería Méndez publishes "Luminous Threads: Maria Alvarez," the first monograph on the artist, on 15 September.

The book collects ten years of weaving and drawing, including the nine works from the artist's 2026 Madrid exhibition and thirty earlier works, twenty of which have not been reproduced before. It runs to 208 pages with 140 colour plates.

A new essay by the writer Inés Cardoso reads the work against the industrial history of the Rio Grande valley, drawing on mill records held at the Piedras Negras municipal archive. A second text by the artist Rosa Iglesias considers Alvarez's drawing practice, which has not previously been written about at length. The book closes with a conversation between the artist and the curator Elena Méndez, recorded in the studio in Marfa.

The monograph is designed by Estudio Ferrer and printed in Barcelona in an edition of 1,500, of which 100 are a special edition accompanied by a signed woven fragment.

Publication date: 15 September 2026

208 pages, 140 colour plates, hardback, 24 by 30 cm

Edition of 1,500, including 100 special copies with a signed woven fragment

ISBN 978-0-000000-00-0

Price: €48. Special edition: €280

Distributed by Example Art Books. Review copies: press@galeriamendez.example

Every artist, gallery and institution in this example is invented.

Why it works

Bibliographic detail is not optional

Page count, plate count, dimensions, ISBN, price and distributor. Books editors cannot list a title without them, and chasing you for an ISBN is a reason to list something else.

Say what is new in it

Twenty works never reproduced, an essay drawing on archive material, a subject not previously written about. A monograph with no new content is a catalogue, and reviewers know the difference.

Offer review copies explicitly

A single line. Its absence is the most common reason an art book goes unreviewed, because nobody will write in to ask.

Conventions
  • Give the full bibliographic block: pages, plates, format, ISBN, price.
  • Name every contributor and what they wrote about.
  • Name the designer and printer. Art book coverage takes production seriously.
  • State edition size, and describe any special edition precisely.
  • Name the distributor by territory.
  • Send three to four months before publication.
What gets it deleted
  • Omitting the ISBN.
  • Sending in publication week, months after listings closed.
  • Describing the book as long-awaited or definitive.
  • Failing to say how a reviewer gets a copy.
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