“To steal a book is an elegant offense” is a Chinese saying of unknown provenance. Keeping this in mind, Stolen Books is not a database of stolen or missing books, but an independent publisher (based in Lisbon, Portugal) that steals (with the agreement of the authors) and publishes works whose absence constitutes an offense to the international book market. Working with established names alongside new and upcoming talents, Stolen Books reproduces copies of visual projects, purposely designed for the book format. Thus, these publications aims to reduce the gap between the vision of the artists — who work at the boundaries between visual art, film, video, photography, design, advertising, music and writing — and that of the viewers. The Stolen Books must be purchased in limited edition, numbered and signed by the authors.

So, if you haven’t paid for a Stolen Books, you’ve stolen it.