Every Thursday, art book shop NADiff runs a Recommended Books series. This time, we asked NADiff to tell us their most recommended book from books published in 2017 as the "2017 Book Grand Prize".

The judge is NADiff buyer Fujie Kanji. "This is the first time I've come across a collection of works that is so unique, yet versatile and diverse. The countless colored dedicated cases and accordion binding make a strong impression, but while it clearly expresses the artist's intentions, it is not overbearing and readers can customize it to make it their own, which I feel will be a photo book that will be well received by many people." (Fujie) Inspired by her photography-loving mother, New Delhi-born photographer Dayanita Singh aspired to become a graphic designer. After graduating from the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad (Gujarat, India), she studied photojournalism at the International Center of Photography (ICP) in New York.

She subsequently captured images of the "Western perception of India," including AIDS-infected sex workers in Bombay, child labor, and poverty, and was featured in numerous magazines. Questioning the desire to simply photograph a stereotypical, exotic, and chaotic India, Dayanita subsequently left photojournalism and shifted her focus to the lives of the wealthy and middle class in the rapidly transforming Asian economy to which she belongs.

She has since held numerous exhibitions around the world and published collections, including several in recent years, in collaboration with Steidl. Her 2017 exhibition, "Dayanita Singh: Museum of India's Large Houses" (Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, May 20–July 17, 2017), is still fresh in our minds, but what was also striking was her approach to creating what she calls "mobile exhibitions" of photobooks. Her latest work, "Museum Bhavan," is a continuation of her 2007 photobook, "Sent A Letter" (Steidl). Comprising nine photobooks with different themes and one textbook (conversations with Aveek Sen and Gerhard Steidl), the book is conceived as a way to transform an exhibition into a home-sized space. The accordion-bound book can be freely shaped to suit your needs. You can arrange the books so that they are all visible at once, or reveal only the pages you choose. This naturally creates a sense of communication with the photobooks. It captures her life, which cannot be pigeonholed into anything specific.