Beam Bookstore

Beam Bookstore Bookshop and cafe: Thur-Sat 9-5pm All things arts, culture and independent publishing.

Too knackered from work to read? Check out a photo book. There’s a lot more to a photograph than a quick glance. If you’...
13/03/2026

Too knackered from work to read? Check out a photo book. There’s a lot more to a photograph than a quick glance. If you’ve not come across Photo Book before they are usually a single focus by a photographer on to a single subject - an exhibition in book form. Spend time with a photo and see what it reveals. Here’s a selection with an environmental theme currently in the book shop.

27/02/2026

So what if art doesn’t have to stay “art”? What if it becomes collective practice, shared work, or new ways of living together?

Illiberal Arts explores what creativity can be beyond the market and beyond institutions.

At 384 pages and 20 texts and richly illustrated. Its great value as leading document on the subject at £30

Thinker of the week! Wendell Berry is a poet, farmer, essayist, and lifelong advocate for the land.Rooted in Kentucky, h...
26/02/2026

Thinker of the week!

Wendell Berry is a poet, farmer, essayist, and lifelong advocate for the land.

Rooted in Kentucky, his writing explores the deep connections between community, agriculture, and environmental stewardship. Through works like The Unsettling of America, Berry has become a guiding voice in conversations around sustainability, responsibility, and living in harmony with the earth.

A reminder that caring for the land is also a way of caring for each other. 🌿✨

This book uncovers the story of Casa Susanna, America’s first known trans network. In the 1950s and 60s, transgender wom...
25/02/2026

This book uncovers the story of Casa Susanna, America’s first known trans network. In the 1950s and 60s, transgender women and cross-dressing men found refuge in a modest Catskills house—a rare safe haven where they could live openly and joyfully as themselves, free from fear of arrest or institutionalization.

Discovered by chance at a New York flea market in 2004, the photographs capture moments of relaxation, experimentation, and connection. Created by Susanna Valenti, this protected space offered community and affirmation, while excerpts from Transvestia reveal how a marginalized community stayed connected beyond its walls.

A powerful reminder that gender has always been expansive—and that joy, courage, and self-expression have always found a way. 🌸

Book of the week!An artistic quest at the intersection of art, ecology, and ancestral science. A brilliant read and beau...
25/02/2026

Book of the week!

An artistic quest at the intersection of art, ecology, and ancestral science. A brilliant read and beautifully illustrated with photography.

In 2018, Swiss artist Ursula Biemann journeyed deep into the Colombian Amazon, where colonial histories and natural science
converge. 🌿

Forest Mind emerged from this immersive exploration—blending video, research, Indigenous knowledge, and collaboration with the Inga community. From Ayahuasca visions to DNA-encoded rainforest imagery developed with ETH Zurich, the project reimagines knowledge as an encounter between minds, worlds, and living systems.

Colour lovers! A great book and nice weekend read. The world comes to us in colour. But colour lives as much in our imag...
13/02/2026

Colour lovers! A great book and nice weekend read. The world comes to us in colour. But colour lives as much in our imaginations as it does in our surroundings, as this scintillating book reveals. Each chapter immerses the reader in a single colour, drawing together stories from the histories of art and humanity to illuminate the meanings it has been given over the eras and around the globe. Showing how artists, scientists, writers, philosophers, explorers and inventors have both shaped and been shaped by these wonderfully myriad meanings, James Fox reveals how, through colour, we can better understand their cultures, as well as our own. Each chapter offers a fresh perspective on a different epoch, and together they form a vivid, exhilarating history of the world.

Jazzy music lovers! A great little book and neat bit of history. Fusion!: From Alice Coltrane to Moor Mother by Alex Col...
12/02/2026

Jazzy music lovers! A great little book and neat bit of history. Fusion!: From Alice Coltrane to Moor Mother by Alex Coles explores the evolution of musical fusion through twelve key collaborations, starting with Alice Coltrane’s 1974 work with Carlos Santana and ending with Moor Mother. The book focuses on how artists blend genres, generations, and philosophies, framing fusion as an ongoing process rather than just a 1970s style.

Open Thur-Sat 9-5pm

12/02/2026

Want a holiday in New York and Brazil?
A brilliant book on how Hélio Oiticica led Brazilian art's transition from abstract art to performable sculpture. This is great inspiration for anyone interested in the 60s and 70s art scene that sprung out of Brazil and its connections with NYC.

One of the most radical and joyful artists of the 20th century, Hélio Oiticica (1937-80) helped lead the charge in Brazilian art’s unique transition from abstract concrete art to performative objects and collective performance. Normally £50 but its slightly damaged so yours for £30.

Ever wondered why art is good for you?Its all in this book. If you’ve not started, start, its good for you. Open today f...
07/02/2026

Ever wondered why art is good for you?
Its all in this book. If you’ve not started, start, its good for you. Open today for art cures… 9-5pm

Our friend Magnus makes a fee recommendations from the book shop:Drift by Daniel Rapley - extraordinary images made from...
06/02/2026

Our friend Magnus makes a fee recommendations from the book shop:

Drift by Daniel Rapley - extraordinary images made from slides from house clearances. Inspiration for those interested in experimental photography.

Volume Magazine - brilliant mag on progressive approaches to design.

Vie Tato, Vie Tare - Survey of Italian counter culture in the 1970s

04/02/2026

A strong and insightful read that traces Rita Ackermann’s practice across three decades, bringing together early figurative works and her more recent abstract paintings. The accompanying catalogue offers valuable context on her evolving visual language, from unsettling adolescent figures to layered, eroded compositions shaped by erasure and rupture. It’s a compelling resource for understanding how Ackermann’s work moves between figuration, abstraction, and myth over time.

On Climate change:A thoughtful, genre-blending read that connects music, art, and end-of-life care with the realities of...
03/02/2026

On Climate change:
A thoughtful, genre-blending read that connects music, art, and end-of-life care with the realities of climate grief. Heidi Hart weaves memoir, research, and creative practice to show how sound and participation can transform grief into collective reflection, care, and critical awareness in a warming world. It’s a powerful exploration of how art helps us stay present, connected, and responsive in times of loss.

Address

Primary, 33 Seely Road
Nottingham
NG71NU

Opening Hours

Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm
Saturday 9am - 5pm

Telephone

+447812053730

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