Mirror Mirror

Mirror Mirror brings leading contemporary designers into Chatsworth House, the historic Cavendish family estate, to explore the meeting of old and new, past and future, and the changing histories and practices of design. For more than four centuries, generations of the Cavendish family commissioned fine and decorative art for the house, which makes it a rich setting in which to encounter new work.

The book grows out of the 2023 exhibition of the same name at Chatsworth. It presents the work of sixteen contemporary artists and designers in photographs taken in situ, each accompanied by an artist biography and essays. These look at how historic objects and environments shape and inspire the way modern artists work today.

The artists featured are Michael Anastassiades, Ini Archibong, Wendell Castle, Andile Dyalvane, Ndidi Ekubia, Najla El Zein, Formafantasma, Joris Laarman, Max Lamb, Fernando Laposse, Jae Sae Jung Oh, Samuel Ross, Chris Schanck, Ettore Sottsass, Faye Toogood and Joseph Walsh.

The pieces range from slender LED lighting structures that light the halls of the Chatsworth library to a seating sculpture hand-carved from Iranian travertine in the formal Rose Garden. Each creates unexpected connections with the house's architecture, interiors, furniture and ceramics.