At once brutal and elegant, sober and luxurious, the furniture created by fashion designer Rick Owens is a natural extension of his monochrome, anarchist-punk clothing aesthetic. From the pods at either end of his 2007 Double Bubble sofa to the massively geometric 2012 Tomb Chair, sprouting a moose antler, each piece seems to channel some ancient, supremely powerful civilisation. In 200 illustrated pages, Rick Owens: Furniture (Rizzoli, $65) illuminates new works – realised with his wife and muse, Michèle Lamy – that form the core of an exhibition on view through 2 April at the Museum of Contemporary Art's Pacific Design Center location in Los Angeles. They speak volumes about the couple’s passions: formal rigour and noble materials, high or low. —Christine Schwartz Hartley