This book pays tribute to the greatest set designer of the modern era. Viewing theater as a total artwork, Léon Bakst (1866–1924) worked with artists such as Diaghilev, Nijinsky, Cocteau and Stravinsky, transforming modern ballet. Cover available in five different colors. Edited by Célia Bernasconi, John E. Bowlt and Nick Mauss (Nouveau Musée National de Monaco and Mousse Publishing). Celebration is right. While famous for his sets and costumes for Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, Bakst was also an inspired textile designer and fashion-forward thinker. This exhibition presents the totality, including Bakst's madly beautiful gouache textile studies. Its fabulous softbound catalog records the show's own superb design, by the artist Nick Mauss, who also made all the unique stenciled-cloth covers. With its matte paper and vintage photographs, the catalog feels sweetly interwar yet ahead of its time. All catalogs should document their exhibitions' installations. -Roberta Smith, "Best Art Books of 2017," The New York Times  .