Design
- A Dictionary of Modern Design, 2016Brief entries, but convenient. (e-book)
- The Visual Dictionary of Graphic Design, 2006 (Hathi ETAS)GD terminology creatively illustrated.
- Thames and Hudson Dictionary of Design since 1900, 2005 (Hathi ETAS)Shorter entries on modern design.
- Graphic Artists Guild Handbook: Pricing & Ethical Guidelines (Hathi ETAS)What's a fair price for your work?
- Encyclopedia of Interior Design, 1997 (Hathi ETAS)Styles, rooms, movements, designers, furnishers, trade names, etc. for all periods and most cultures. 2 volumes.
- Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Design, 2016Authoritative summaries and recommended readings for current & historical topics.
- AGI: Graphic Design Since 1950, 2007Richly illustrated bios of 600 of the members of the Alliance Graphique Internationale - a selective international group.
- An A-Z of Type Designers, 2006Several hundred people and their work from early movable type to early digital.
- Design: Intelligence Made Visible, 2007 (Hathi ETAS)Useful as a supplement to the above.
Or for quick, authoritative summaries of the history of our visual culture:
Photography
- The Oxford Companion to the Photograph, 2005History, technology, theory, and bios. (e-book)
- Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography, 2008Includes photographers, critics, formal aspects, hardware, institutions, movements, publications, regions, techniques, and styles. 2 volumes.
- Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Photography, 2006Includes photographers, critics, formal aspects, hardware, institutions, movements, publications, regions, techniques, and styles. 3 volumes.
Recent Art
- Encyclopedia of Aesthetics (2nd ed.)Great for theories, theorists, trends, and concepts such as "the sublime."
- The Grove Encyclopedia of American Art, 2011From Native American to now. (e-book)
- A Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Art, 2015Brief but informative entries. Especially good for critical terms. (e-book)
- Styles, Schools and Movements, 2005A chronological arrangement so use the index to find a specific topic.
- International Art Galleries, 2005History of the major commercial galleries of the world's art capitals.
- Queer Encyclopedia of the Visual Arts, 2004LGBT+ artists and imagery in painting, drawing, photography, printmaking, sculpture, and architecture.
- St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, 2000Mostly mass media and entertainment but also other aspects of pop culture. The paper version is 5 volumes.
- Routledge Handbook of Graffiti and Street Art, 2016Reviews the scholarly literature on 35 broad topics. Use the index for specifics.