Menil Bookstore

Following a two-month renovation, The Menil Bookstore is back in business with expanded offerings and a well-respected new Bookstore Manager, Paul Forsythe. Located in a free-standing bungalow, away from the museum, the newly-painted Bookstore stocks an assortment of art tomes, special gift items and a children’s section with games, puzzles and toys. Join other art enthusiasts there on nice Houston afternoons, when the Bookstore’s well-shaded patio provides prime real estate for museum-goers. The shop is open during museum hours—Wednesday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. The Menil Collection opened to the public in June 1987 as the primary repository of John and Dominique de Menil’s private collection. One of the most significant of the twentieth century, the collection consists of nearly 15,000 works dating from the Paleolithic era to the present day. Although historically vast, it uniquely resists the conventional museum model of the encyclopedia. Instead, within the four areas that largely define the collection—Antiquity, Byzantine and Medieval, Tribal, and Twentieth-Century Art (with a concentration in Surrealism)—one finds a selective approach to acquisition that yields depth with regard to particular areas and artists.