Even before the first works by Ibrahim Mahama are hung, it is a shelf of books that will reopen its doors. The Fondation Cartier’s bookshop, visible from Rue de Rivoli, welcomes the public again from 22 September 2026, while the institution’s teams complete the installation of the exhibition Harvest Time, on view from 22 October 2026 to 28 February 2027.
Across 130 square metres, this space has never been conceived as a mere point of sale. It is meant to reflect the institution’s spirit as a place of art and culture, with the Fondation Cartier’s own publications at its centre: exhibition catalogues, art books, albums, right down to colouring books and limited editions designed with the exhibited artists. Books organised by medium or discipline round out the offering, alongside a wide range of derivative products conceived as extensions of the programming rather than as mere promotional items.
This logic of extension carries through even into the layout of the space. The offering evolves in step with the programming, through thematic selections designed as extensions of current exhibitions and projects rather than as a simple spin-off section. The bookshop reorganises itself accordingly, thanks to a system of modular furniture created specifically for the space by Jean Nouvel Design — a way of putting container and content in dialogue, down to the choice of furniture itself.
Beyond selling books, the space is also intended as a place of passage: the bookshop will host readings, encounters and signing sessions linked to current exhibitions or to news from the world of publishing, reinforcing its role as a place of exchange as much as of discovery. A way, for the Fondation, of multiplying the entry points into its programming, beyond the exhibition walls alone.
The appointment is set for 2, Place du Palais-Royal, Tuesday to Sunday between 11am and 7pm. By choosing the bookshop as its first gesture ahead of the exhibition itself, the Fondation Cartier recalls a truth too often forgotten: mediation around a work sometimes begins even before it is hung.
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