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A small town in the vast desert of West Texas, Marfa attracts visitors from around the world to its art foundations and galleries, film and music festivals, and design and architecture symposiums. While newcomers sometimes see it as “another Santa Fe,” long-time residents often take a bemused, even disapproving attitude toward the changes that Marfa has undergone since artist Donald Judd came to town in the 1970s and began creating spaces for his own and other artists’ work. They remember when ranching and the military formed the basis of the town’s economy, even as they acknowledge that tourist dollars are now essential to Marfa’s sustainabilityMarfa tells an engaging story of how this isolated place became a beacon in the art world, like the famous Marfa Lights that draw curious spectators into the West Texas night. As Kathleen Shafer delves into the town’s early history, the impact of Donald Judd, the expansion of arts programming, and the increase in tourism, she unlocks the complex interplay between the particularities of the place, the forces of commerce and growth, the textures of local culture and tradition, and the transformative role of artists and creative work. Bookending her story between two iconic artworks-the whimsical Prada Marfa and the crass Playboy Marfa-Shafer illuminates the shifting cultural landscape of Marfa, showing why this place has become a mecca for so many and how the influx of newcomers has transformed its character.

Twenty-one houses in and around Marfa, Texas, provide a glimpse at creative life and design in one of the art world’s most intriguing destinations.When Donald Judd began his Marfa project in the early 1970s, it was regarded as an idiosyncratic quest. Today, Judd is revered for his minimalist art and the stringent standards he applied to everything around him, including interiors, architecture, and furniture. The former water stop has become a mecca for artists, art pilgrims, and design aficionados drawn to the creative enclave, the permanent installations called “among the largest and most beautiful in the world,” and the austerely beautiful high-desert landscape.In keeping with Judd’s site-specific intentions, those who call Marfa home have made a choice to live in concert with their untamed, open surroundings. Marfa Modern features houses that represent unique responses to this setting - the sky, its light and sense of isolation - some that even predate Judd’s arrival.Here, conceptual artist Michael Phelan lives in a former Texaco service station with battery acid stains on the concrete floor and a twenty-foot dining table lining one wall. A chef’s modest house comes with the satisfaction of being handmade down to its side tables and bath, which expands into a private courtyard with an outdoor tub. Another artist uses the many rooms of her house, a former jail, to shift between different mediums - with Judd’s Fort D. A. Russell works always visible from her second-story sun porch.Extraordinary building costs mean that Marfa dwellers embrace a culture of frontier ingenuity and freedom from excess—salvaged metal signs become sliding doors and lengths of pipe become lighting fixtures, industrial warehouses are redesigned after the area’s white-cube galleries to create space for private or personally created art collections, and other materials are suggested by the land itself: walls are made of adobe bricks or rammed earth to form sculptural courtyards, or, in one remarkable instance, a mix of mud and brick plastered with local soils, cactus mucilage, horse manure, and straw.

Named a ‘Best Art Book of 2024’ by HyperallergicA vibrant account of Ballroom Marfa’s groundbreaking first two decades of art and musicSince its founding in the storied but remote West Texas town of Marfa, Ballroom Marfa has [punched above its weight] been an outsized advocate for visionary artistic expression. From shows including renowned artists Takashi Murakami, Rashid Johnson, and Guadalupe Maravilla, to Elmgreen & Dragset’s now-iconicPrada Marfa installation, to live performances by Sonic Youth and shock-master John Waters, to large-scale commissions from Agnes Denes and Haroon Mirza, Ballroom’s impact has reverberated far beyond the desert.Ballroom Marfa: The First Twenty Years tells the story of this extraordinary art destination through lively firsthand accounts by internationally celebrated artists and performers such as Terry Allen, Mel Chin, Agnes Denes, rafa esparza, Loie Hollowell, Elmgreen & Dragset, Hubbard/Birchler, and Graham Reynolds, among many others. It also includes three zines capturing two decades of electrifying performances by musicians including Roky Erickson, Helado Negro, Suzanne Ciani, Lonnie Holley, Lyle Lovett, Laraaji, Joanna Newsom, Perfume Genius, Pharoah Sanders, Sonic Youth, Spoon, and Wire, to name just a few.Ballroom Marfa: The First Twenty Years is a kaleidoscopic, lavishly illustrated collection of highlights from the [museum’s] foundation's first two decades, as told by the artists, musicians, curators, and community.

Marfa Garden is a celebration of more than a hundred flowering plants of the Chihuahuan Desert, North America's largest hot desert, spanning northern Mexico, West Texas, and parts of New Mexico and Arizona. Hundreds of photos show plants in year-round cycles, with budding, complex foliage, unfolding blooms, seedpods, and winter texture and color. Also included are introductory essays, each plant’s common and scientific names, historical information, garden use, and USDA classification, as well as abundant space for gardening notes. Everyday gardeners, naturalists, landscape designers, architects, and anyone interested in dry gardens of the Southwest will find great value and joy in this essential field guide.

A treasure trove of essays, recipes, and images exploring the people and food of Marfa and its premier restaurant, The CapriCooking in Marfa introduces an unusual small town in the West Texas desert and, within it, a fine-dining oasis in a most unlikely place. The Capri excels at serving the spectrum of guests that Marfa draws, from locals and ranchers to artists, museum-board members, and discerning tourists. Featuring more than 80 recipes inspired by local products, this is the story of this unique community told through the lens of food, sharing the cuisine and characters that make The Capri a destination unto itself.