Published on the occasion of the exhibition "Martin Creed: What's the Point of It?," held at the Hayward Gallery, London, 29 January - 27 April 2014.

Art Now is a series of interview-based profiles of prominent contemporary visual artists, bringing together the work of Howard Hodgkin, Antony Gormley, Rachel Whiteread, Julian Opie, Mark Wallinger, and 2001 Turner Prize winner Martin Creed.Sandy Nairne's introductory essay offers a comprehensive overview of the state of contemporary art, highlighting how the six artists manifest some of the best recent and emerging art in Britain today. Each interview presents a thought-provoking survey of the artist's work and ideas and offers a rare and personal insight into their influences and creative processes. Art Now is an excellent introduction to some of today's most important contemporary artists and provides an accessible way to engage with the pleasures and puzzles of art in the twenty-first century.

What is the future of conceptualism? What expressions can it take in the 21st century? Is there a new role for aesthetic experience in art and, if so, what is that role exactly? Aesthetics, Philosophy and Martin Creed uses one of this generation's most important and influential artists to address themes crucial to contemporary aesthetics. Working in an impressive variety of artistic media, Creed represents a strikingly innovative take on conceptualism. Through his ingenious and thought-provoking work, a team of international philosophers, jurists and art historians illustrate how Creed epitomizes several questions central to philosophical aesthetics today and provides a glimpse of the future both of art and aesthetic discourse. They discuss key concepts for Creed's work, including immediacy (in his photographs of smiling people), compositional order (in his geometric paintings), simplicity (in Work No. 218, a sheet paper crumpled into a ball) and shamelessness (in his videos of vomiting people). By bringing a working artist into the heart of academic discussions, Aesthetics, Philosophy and Martin Creed highlights the relevance of philosophical discussions of art to understanding art today.

What do we mean when we say that we are bored? Or when we find a subject boring? Contributors to On Boredom: Essays in art and writing, which include artists, art historians, psychoanalysts and a novelist, examine boredom in its manifold and uncertain reality. Each part of the book takes up a crucial moment in the history of boredom and presents it in a new light, taking the reader from the trials of the consulting room to the experience of hysteria in the nineteenth century. The book pays particular attention to boredom’s relationship with the sudden and rapid advances in technology that have occurred in recent decades, specifically technologies of communication, surveillance and automation. On Boredom is idiosyncratic for its combination of image and text, and the artworks included in its pages – by Mathew Hale, Martin Creed and Susan Morris – help turn this volume into a material expression of boredom itself. With other contributions from Josh Cohen, Briony Fer, Anouchka Grose, Rye Dag Holmboe, Margaret Iversen, Tom McCarthy and Michael Newman, the book will appeal to readers in the fields of art history, literature, cultural studies and visual culture, from undergraduate students to professional artists working in new media.

To celebrate the opening of the artist's first large-scale retrospective, Hayward Publishing is releasing a special edition of 250 copies of its Martin Creed: What's the point of it? exhibition catalogue.Each copy will feature a new version of Creed's iconic torn paper piece, as well as a handwritten 'certificate' of authentication, written onto the pages of the book and individually signed by the artist.Embodying the artist's immediate and irreverent approach, the Martin Creed: What's the point of it? 'special Edition' represents a highly affordable opportunity to purchase a singular piece by this world-renowned artist.Published alongside an exhibition at the Hayward Gallery, London (29 January - 27 April 2014).

In this systematic philosophical critique of the major tenets of Christianity, Michael Martin examines the semantic and epistemological bases of religious claims and beliefs. Beginning with a comparison and evaluation of the Apostles' Creed, the Niceno-Chalcedonian Creed, and the Athanasian Creed, Martin discusses the principal theological, historical, and eschatological assumptions of Christianity. These include the historicity of Jesus, the Incarnation, the Second Coming, the Virgin Birth, the Resurrection, Salvation through faith in Jesus, and Jesus as a model of ethical behavior. Until now, an adequately convincing criticism of Christianity did not exist. Martin's use of historical evidence, textual analysis, and interpretations by philosophers and theologians provides the strongest case made to date against the rational justification of Christian doctrines.