New African Fashion
(Prestel, 2011)
Author of the first coffee table book dedicated to contemporary style and beauty from Africa. It offers a history of style and beauty from Africa and profiles the best designers, photographers and models. Favourably reviewed in British and US Vogue, New York Times, L’Officiel, Essence, AnOther and Guardian.
Why I Make Art
(Atelier Editions, 2022)
Wrote six chapters for this book based on the Sound & Vision Podcast by Brian Alfred, which explores the practices and life stories of 30 contemporary artists.
Fashion and Postcolonial Critique
(Sternberg Press, 2018)
Contributed an essay to Elke Gaugele and Monica Titton’s academic book for the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.
Interlude
(Publisher, 2018)
Wrote the foreword for Francois Visser’s artist’s edition photography book.
Africa Modern
(KT Wong Foundation, 2017)
Wrote an essay on emerging artists for Ekow Eshun’s book marking the opening of the Zeitz MOCAA museum in Cape Town.
African-Print Fashion Now!
(Fowler, 2017)
Contributed a chapter to this book examining wax print's influence on global taste and style. Edited by Suzanne Gott, Kristyne S. Loughran, Betsy D. Quick, and Leslie W. Rabine, it accompanied an exhibition of the same name at the Fowler Museum at UCLA, California.
Fashion Cities Africa
(Intellect, 2016)
Contributed two chapters to Hannah Azieb Pool's celebration of the fashion landscapes of Lagos, Casablanca, Nairobi and Johannesburg to accompany a major exhibition of the same name at Brighton Museum. Helen also consulted on the curation of the show, which travelled onto the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam.
Haute Africa
(Lanoo, 2014)
Wrote the introductory essay for the book accompanying Fotofestival Knokke-Heist, Belgium's contemporary photography biennale. She also consulted on the curation of the biennale.
Fashion: The Whole Story