Rupi Kaur: ‘There was no market for poetry about trauma, abuse and healing’

The young Punjabi-Sikh poet made a career by forcing herself into places where she’s least expected – like Instagram and the New York Times bestseller list

Bloodbaths and bad dreams: Shaun Tan’s fairytale sculptures

The writer-illustrator made his name with dark, unsettling picture books such as The Rabbits. Now he’s swapped his pencil for clay to make miniature nightmares based on the stories of the Brothers Grimm

From midnight road movies to small-hours rave: the best culture for night-owls

Observer film, art, music and literature critics choose their top five night-themed works

Sales of Syrian culture anthology soar after woman held for reading it on plane

Syria Speaks, which made headlines after it led to a honeymooning airline passenger being questioned under the Terrorism Act, sees surge of interest

Homage to George Orwell: BBC statue wins planning permission

Broadcaster’s former employee who left on bad terms will return as a lifesize bronze sculpture outside London headquarters

The 100 best nonfiction books: No 27 – The Nude: A Study of Ideal Art by Kenneth Clark (1956)

Kenneth Clark’s survey of the nude from the Greeks to Picasso foreshadows the critic’s towering claims for humanity in his later seminal work, Civilisation

Eye of the Sixties by Judith Stein review – the bad salesman with excellent taste

The art dealer Richard Bellamy isn’t exactly a household name, but he discovered the most celebrated names of the New York scene, a new biography reveals

Colour: The Art and Science of Illuminated Manuscripts review – a rainbow of agony and ecstasy

They may look like props from a Harry Potter film, but the manuscripts in this sumptuous show are expressionist art, as full of emotion as a Van Gogh painting

Artist Sophia Al-Maria: ‘People hate Islam, but they’re titillated by it too’

As her first solo show opens in New York, the Qatari-American artist talks about Gulf pop culture, gross veil fetishes – and why she’s not playing the ‘native informant’

Dalí, Duchamp and Dr Caligari: the surrealism that inspired David Bowie

Growing up, Bowie was as influenced by surrealist art and film as he was by Little Richard and John Coltrane, says Paul Morley

Publisher Gail Rebuck honoured with painting in National Portrait Gallery

The chair of Penguin Random House and Labour peer admitted she was ‘speechless’ when told the work would hang in the central London gallery

Medieval doodles in the margins? Blame the children

Surreal creatures in book by 14th-century Neapolitan monk added by two children a few centuries later, says academic

Vanessa Bell to break free from Bloomsbury group in Dulwich show

The sister of Virginia Woolf and lover of Duncan Grant is long overdue recognition as pioneer of modern art, say curators

Paper: Paging Through History by Mark Kurlansky – review

This well-bound romp through the back pages of civilisation is flawed but fascinating

The 10 best things to do this week

From the return of Patsy and Edina to a Georgia O’Keeffe retrospective: your at-a-glance guide to the best in culture this week