Alexandria Press was established in London in 1978 with the aim of producing quality art books quite deliberately not intended for a mass market. We concentrate on subjects related to Byzantine, Russian and Islamic culture, a direction determined by our long-standing links to the art world and academia in these fields.
 

Our goal is the fusion of the scholarly monograph and the ‘coffee table book’. Our books are the product of a close and symbiotic relationship between author, editor, designer and publisher. No effort or time is spared at any stage in a book’s life: from the formulation of the concept, the gathering of the material, the writing of the text, the painstaking process of marrying words and pictures, and finally, to the production of the book.
 

The attention to detail we bring to our major projects is such that in 25 years in publishing we have produced only twelve titles. Being small has allowed us the privilege afforded to few commercial publishers: to give maximum attention to the projects we undertake. Each has a typical gestation period of 4-8 years, and our forthcoming title on ICONS has been in preparation for well over a decade.
 

We like to think of our readers as highly discerning individuals who share our belief that there will always be a market for well-made books. This view has been amply vindicated by the critical and commercial success of IZNIK. First published in 1989 and now in its fourth printing in English, it continues to sell steadily an unprecedented 14 years after its first appearance and has had successful co-editions in French, Turkish and Japanese.
 

High standards come at a high cost. Yet, we take the view that high prices should not be allowed to put our books beyond the reach of their natural readership. To keep our prices as low as possible, we like to enter into co-edition agreements with foreign publishers. Producing larger print runs than our home market alone could absorb results in economies of scale, the benefits of which we pass on to the public.
 

Despite our insistence upon ‘old-fashioned’ disciplines, Alexandria Press embraced information technology from an early date as a means to classify and organise the material for our books. This side of our activities has grown and resulted in the launch of our first electronic product for the art world, the inventory system ARCHEION. Designed with our customary degree of thought and care, this pair of software packages addresses the needs of art dealers and collectors, a sophisticated community often more comfortable with the quill pen than the computer.