Henri Matisse Cut-outs: Drawing With Scissors, Edited by Gilles and Xavier-Gilles Neret (Taschen, £44.99)

Baudelaire’s dictum that artists should retain a childlike freshness of vision sustained Henri Matisse throughout his life. Even in his late 60s, he still discovered a new way of working which led to some of his greatest works.

Dispensing with traditional drawing, he cut out the shapes of his subjects directly into paper, hand-painted with gouache, thus solving his lifelong quest of reconciling the conflicting demands of colour and drawing.

Gilles and Xavier-Gilles Neret’s book, divided into six chronological sections, intersperses numerous photographs, letters and statements by Matisse with informative and knowledgable art historical explanations of the genesis, development and patronage of his cut-outs. More elliptical reflections on these by the poets Louis Aragon, Henri Michaux and Pierre Reverdy provoke imaginative connections between written and visual ideas.

Beginning with Matisse’s life- changing voyage to the South Pacific, the chronology follows Matisse’s journey from the early 1930s cut-outs to those featured in the avant-garde magazine Verve and the book Jazz, the chapel at Vence and the late monumental murals whose waving leaves, seaweeds and fish were inspired by memories of Oceania.

The book’s superb production values truly set it apart from others. Its large format and high standards of photography and printing take the reader on a journey which few art books attain.

Many of its 300-plus pages reproduce Matisse’s work full-page or in double-page spreads with some being treble or quadruple page fold-outs.

The large scale and the accuracy of colour make the subtleties of colour gradation and variation of the original gouaches and small but significant details of cut outlines and superimposed shapes visible.

A joy to look at, such rare visual accuracy also acts as useful art historical reference. That, along with  the informed commentary, take this luxury edition beyond a glamorous coffee table book. Expensive but good value, given its beauty and rich content, it  testifies to the continuing validity of printed books as objects to be treasured in an age swamped by utilitarian digital information.