‘BAUHAUS MÄDELS: A TRIBUTE TO PIONEERING WOMEN ARTISTS’ By Patrick Rössler (Taschen). With a title taken from a contemporary newspaper headline (in English the dubious “Bauhaus gals”), this thick novel-size book celebrates the scores of women, mostly little-known, if at all, who studied at the important but short-lived multidisciplinary school (or its successor in Dessau). Each woman is represented by as much biographical information as Mr. Rössler was able to unearth and at least one photograph, taken by teachers, fellow students, spouses, lovers or themselves. The book reflects much — from the rise of photography as hobby, profession and art form to popular hairstyles (short) and poses. The women’s post-Bauhaus trajectories, many affected by the rise of the Nazis (who forced the school to close), form a dizzying tracery. Some remained artists, others did not. Either way, learning about them is a gift. (Read about the Bauhaus legacy.)

‘GREAT WOMEN ARTISTS’ (Phaidon Press Limited). The middle word of the title is wittily crossed out on the book’s cover and opening page, as if to imply that the gender of those included is irrelevant. Alphabetical order prevails; each artist is given a large color photograph, biographical information and a bit of aesthetic interpretation of the work pictured. One pleasant surprise is the number of female painters working in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries. This is a “great,” immensely useful book, though opinions will vary about whether each contemporary artist included qualifies as great or is simply currently visible and marketable. Also, everyone will be able to name artists who should have been included here. (Among mine: Trisha Donnelly, Dona Nelson, Goshka Macuga and Celia Paul.) Send them to Phaidon. Help make the second edition even greater.

‘TARSILA DO AMARAL: CANNIBALIZING MODERNISM’ Edited by Adriano Pedrosa and Fernando Oliva (MASP). In this lavishly illustrated, multivoiced and comprehensive catalog, some dozen curators, critics and writers insistently create more space between the work of this singular and singularly Brazilian artist and the European influences she absorbed in Paris in the early 1920s. Factoring in Tarsila’s upper-class origins (she was always called by her first name) and Brazil’s social turmoil, they approach her work from many angles — topography, primitivism, popular culture and even contemporary performance art — in ways both precise and expansive.

‘THE POCKET: A HIDDEN HISTORY OF WOMEN’S LIVES, 1660-1900’ By Barbara Burman and Ariane Fennetaux (Yale University Press). Before pockets were finally sewn into women’s garments — long after men’s were — they were tied onto the waist and worn above or beneath aprons or skirts and filled with all sorts of personal items, small tools and necessities, like keys. In this riveting book, the authors take advantage of the pockets’ frequent survival in textile museums, private collections and family holdings across Britain, tracing their presence in art, literature, political satire, domestic organization and court records. In the entwining of art, social and material history, few stones are left unturned.