Artists Books

McGinnis is a master of his craft, I mainly purchased this book not because I want to paint like him, but when I saw a piece he did for Enter the Dragon I had to commend his visual flair pertaining to movie posters.....the man is a master, and frankly, his Bond women are goddesses. This book conatins some great works of his, add it to your collection like I did.

I can't recommend this book strongly enough. Way back during an age when book illustrators were respected celebrities, Robert McGinnis would have been the toast of the town.

This book is a consumate showcase of an extremely talented artist. Every aspect of his career is covered and it lets the reader see that McGinnis had made a mark in not one, not two, but three different genres.

One: Paperback book art, in which he introduces an atomic age America to his very distinctive brand of woman: amazon tall, lean as a steel pipe and as majestic as a swan.

Two: The genre of movie poster art where he helps elevate James Bond from paperback book secret agent to one of the country's most recognizable pop icons.

And three: A return to his statuesque beauties in arguably the classiest collection of pin-up art the oil canvas has ever known.

As with many great American illustrators, Robert McGinnis settled into his later years by painting brilliant scenes of the wild and tamed West and those works are also given their own section in TAPESTRY.

A must-have for illustrators and art patrons if there ever was one.

This book has filled all my expectations. Before I bought it, I was looking a few paintings of McGinnis, but I was always sure about that this is a great publication. Excellent!

I'm in agreement with everyone else, that 1.) Robert Mcginnis is the best paperback book illustrator ever (perhaps rivaled only by Frank Frazetta); and 2.) This is the best collection of Mcginnis art available in book form. There's only one flaw in the whole thing: it never says what medium the artist uses (I found out it's egg tempera). If you love to gaze at beautiful paintings of every genre subject, or if you are yourself a painter or commercial artist, this belongs on your bookshelf. I've had it for years, and never tire of looking at it. A classic.

I had never even heard of Robert McGinnis until I was linked to this page by the editors' names (the Fenners) who I know from their affiliation with science fiction art. The reviews were so favorable that I decided to gamble on this book without any other familiarity with McGinnis. I usually lose on these impulsive gambles. Not this time. Suffice it to say this book is a total prize, it's just filled cover to cover with extreme beauty.

I am particularly impressed with this man's diversity of talent...he does great "pin up" type art of beautiful women, and then he does these embracing outdoor scenes which are almost within the genre of "Marlboro" commercials and then there are other pieces which are evocative of Norman Rockwell and Maxfield Parrish. Each painting is fantastic and to me represents a dinstinct aspect of the best phenomena in Earthly life. However, there is even a little sci-fi art in here, so not all his fantastic visions are necessarily Earth-bound!

I love unexpected treasure!

i liked the pictures in the book though there is not a whole lot of written material on Tibet. it is a perfect book for someone who is curious about Tibet with all its beatiful pictures and some history. this is a good book to ocassionally go through the pictures again. it is an excellent book to show to a friend who drops by your house or a gift to your children.

The following is a review of The Tibetans: Photographs by Art Perry that appeared in the December issue of Photo Metro magazine.

Perhaps the best book to date on Tibet. This work goes beyond the easy cliche images of dramatic landscapes and content-less smiling figures that populate so many other books. This is no parachute in, shoot pix, and fly out to publishers and galleries book. Perry spent five years on the project and represents both the beauty and the grit of day-to-day life. It shows. The book is quite well designed with intelligent text by Robert Thurman.

The following is a review of Art Perry The Tibetans: Photographs that appeared in The Toronto Globe and Mail, April 8, 2000.

(Headline:"Turning the spotlight on photography books," by Martin Levin.) For many years, B.C. writer and photographer Art Perry has documented threatened cultures, including the Nubians and the Mayans. Here he turns his attention, and his fine black-and-white photographic sensibility, on Tibetans, the world's most famous enigmatic people. Perry takes us to remote monasteries, up the Chang Tang Plateau and to the Tibetan exile communities in India and Nepal. The whole conveys a powerful sense of meaning - and loss.

The following article appeared in The Vancouver Sun, May 10, 2000

'Tibetan images snag major prize for local photographer' by Michael Scott, Sun Visual Art Critic

Vancouver photographer Art Perry has won a major international award for his large-format photographic book The Tibetans: Photographs. Perry, an instructor at Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, becomes the second winner of the $30,000 Roloff Beny Photography Book Award at a ceremony in Toronto. (Magnum photographer Larry Towell received the first Beny Award for his book El Salvador.) The publisher of Perry's 1999 book, Viking Studio (an imprint of Penguin Books), will share in the award, receiving a $20,000 prize of its own. Perry spent five years collecting images of Buddhist societies in the Himalayas, working primarily in Tibet, but travelling also to Ladakh and Nepal. Last year, the Washington Post named his book one of the year's 10 best. A Vancouver Sun reviewer wrote: "Perry takes us from the slightly familiar markets and brothels of Lhasa clear through to the monasteries and mountaintops that have not been otherwise documented. The text is as clear-eyed as the pictures, but the message it contains is not entirely pretty. Though Buddhism practiced by the Tibetans will certainly endure, Tibetan Buddhist culture is very much under attack, perhaps by we western cultural imperialists, certainly by the country's Chinese occupiers. Read it, or just look at the pictures, and those Free Tibet bumper stickers will seem a lot more immediate." Here in Vancouver, Perry teaches a multi-disciplinary course at Emily Carr on the history of bohemianism - a course that covers film, punk rock and jazz as well as visual art. (I start by telling my students to stay up all night before coming to class," he jokes.) Perry also teaches a course in contemporary literature, a field that has sparked his interest in his own Irish roots. He says he will spend part of the Beny prize money on a sabbatical year in County Monaghan in northern Ireland. Perry plans to pursue both writing and photography during this time. "I have to say I am very, very honoured to be receiving this award," he says. "My father had some of Roloff Beny's big books and I grew up handling those incredible pages. There aren't people in those images, but they were lush and magnificent." Expatriate Canadian photographer Roloff Beny made an international name for himself in the 1970s and early 1980s chronicling a world of sensual beauty, with major large-format books on subjects such as pre-revolutionary Iran and Italy. He died in 1984.

The following is an article that appeared in the National Post, Toronto, May 11, 2000

(Headline: Photography book award, by Finbarr O'Reilly, National Post)

Vancouver-based photographer Art Perry has won the second Roloff Beny Photography Book Award for The Tibetans. The country's top photography book award, presented last night in Toronto, earns Perry a cash prize of $30,000. His American publisher, Viking Studio/Penguin Putnam, also gets $20,000, while two runners-up, Courtney Milne and Linda Rutenberg, get $5,000 each. Perry, who is a lecturer at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, spent five years travelling throughout Tibet and the exiled Tibetan communities in India and Nepal, documenting with a camera the people he met along the way - monks, nomads, city dwellers. Through the Dalai Lama, Perry gained access to seldom-visited monasteries in remote regions where he captured a traditional way of life that is being threatened by the Chinese occupation of Tibet. In a current project, the Ottawa-born Perry has been documenting in both writing and photographs the fractured cultures of Northern and Southern Ireland. The project, which he began in 1998, is a lifelong dream of Perry, whose family is from Belfast. The award was created in memory of Roloff Beny, a world-renowned photographer who was born in Medicine Hat, Alta., and is intended to encourage excellence in photograph publishing.

As a sculptor myself I can truely admire what effort goes into each of Andy's environmental works. In some he works with nature and others against but always with respect of the materials used. Truely inspiring and a wonderful narative style of writing which makes you feel like you were there when the works were created!

Andy Goldsworthy's artwork is utterly ephemeral and fleeting, and perhaps because of this, utterly transfixing. There is something of the ancients in the way Goldsworthy puts together stone, or wood, or leaves--or even in the way he lays himself down on a dry patch of ground in the rain so that when he gets up, we see a sort of reverse shadow of his body. There is an astonishing intellect at work here, and a soul which sees the value in what some art snobs might term "mere beauty."

Goldsworthy's many mediums are covered in "Time," which features sumptuous photography by Terry Friedman. We see perfectly constructed stone cairns--some pyramidal, some only half done and all the more startling for what isn't there as for what is. We see ruddy sandstone arches four times the height of a man. But Goldsworthy's most consistently inviting work is done not in stone, but in the ephemera nature leaves for him everywhere he looks. Goldsworthy's work is sometimes so fleeting as to question the very nature of whether it constitutes art when it lasts only minutes or hours. The frost shadows, for instance, are simply photographs of the still-iced patches of grass over which Goldsworthy stood in the early morning, then stepped aside so that a photograph could be taken. Of course these are gone within minutes as the sun warms the now-exposed grass. Is this art? Merely the fact that you question it shows your engagement with the work--Goldsworthy fosters a kind of subtle dialogue between reader and artist and the dialogue is consistently engaging. Another heat-destroyed piece is the thinnest imaginable sheet of ice, laid against a moss-covered rock, and Goldsworthy's handprint visible on it. As it thawed, it buckled and disappeared and we see its disappearance in the photographs. It's lovely, it's witty and it is, improbably art.

Other things disappear, too, but not from the sun's warmth. There is a "stick hole" Goldsworthy built early one spring which he and Friedman came back to photograph throughout the summer until the final photograph shows it utterly covered with the lacy ferns which grew up around it. There are the perfectly circular or perfectly ovoid leaf rafts Goldsworthy stitches together, then sends on their way down a meandering stream, having their path photographed before they disappear. There are the piled of rocks he constructs leading into the ocean so that the tides swallow them up--each stage meticulously recorded on film.

Perhaps the most transformative art in the book is the mud wall displayed on the cover. Goldsworthy applied mud to walls and floor in such a way that when the mud cracked and dried, it showed the meandering, snakelike pattern he'd put into it. It has become something entirely different solely through the passage of time. This book is filled with surprises and delights, and will have you utterly absorbed, charmed, and astonished. I can't recommend it highly enough.

What a work of creative and artistic genius!

What to say about such an amazing work? For the first few times I
mainly absorbed the photos of his works, with only reading the
little captions and it wiped me off my feet. After a few rounds
of these I decided to read all of the writing in the book that
accompany the works he made and it totally blew me away. This
book has definitely altered something deep inside about the way
Ilook at nature, change, the seasons and time in general.

Time, as the title of the book suggests is the main topic of the
book and Andy Goldsworthy's art in general or at least his
approach and intention towards it. The body of work presented in
numerous photos and with corresponding writing in the form of a
journal covers the whole range Goldsworthy's work. For example
works made from stone, wood, leaves, snow, ice,...

As a result it gives an excellent overview and introduction of
his work and via the numerous writings a very deep, personal and
detailed insight into how he approaches different places, how he
reacts to change and works with the weather. The writing is on
par with his work. Very clear, direct, honest and poetic.

His insight into the concepts of time and change and seasons and
nature is truly breath taking. The introduction he wrote for the
book is a wonderful example illustrating this. Part of it can be
read by using the "Look inside the book" feature of Amazon.

Spending time with this book really cracks ones mind wide open
about time, change, nature and seasons and how to look at it and
perceive it.

And honestly I don't know what's more amazing. These amazing
and unbelievable pieces of art. Or the incredibly crisp and poetic
writing, deepening so much ones understanding of the works and
give insight into Goldsworthys view and approach and thoughts. Or
simply that out there somewhere a human being is walking this
earth with such an amazing understanding of time and nature and
able to transform this into amazing art an writing.

If the idea of Goldsworthys work is for him to work with time and
change and nature and to further his awareness of these concepts
and make sense of them in the most beautiful way then that is
exactly what this book excells marvelously at for the reader.

I had viewed the DVD "Rivers and Tides" which is a tour of Andy Goldsworthy's artistic endeavors. It is very compelling and left a lasting impression. I wanted more and discovered, to my delight, that a large number of Andy's creations shown in the DVD were documented in the book "Time". There had to be photographs of Andy's work since most of them are not permanent in either time or space. In the DVD, we see the creation process as it occurs and then it may dissolve or move. In the book, it is "frozen" in time and space and can be appreciated as a work of art. I recommend seeing the DVD first so the book's contents can be appreciated even more.

Andy Goldsworthy's work inspires me to look at nature in a very deep way.
His use of the environment and natural materials provokes me to look at how I can
incorporate more natural materials into my own work. I am in awe everytime I open up the book and look at the images. I especially like red clay and the way it went through it's own process through time.
a gem, a timeless exploration of our natural world!

I made copies of some of the poems to put on the overhead for my classroom of middle school students. Some of my Spanish speakers "volunteered" (at my urging) to read aloud, and all the kids loved it! The art selections are appropriate and the readability level is good for this age (even in the Spanish) A great addition to any teacher's bookshelf.

I found this book a valuable resource for getting young children interested in poetry. I have used this book for three years now and the response from my 2nd and 3rd graders has been fantastic. Many of the poems in this book, the kiddos can associate with making for interesting reading. This is a must buy for anyone trying to introduce poetry in the classroom.

This is a wonderful book . The pictures work the imagination and the poems are beautiful. The dual language format will intrigue young readers and just may get them interested in a 'different' language. In addition this will expose youngsters to some of Mexico's rich culture. I know several college professors who have adopted this book to use in their Children's Literature and reading courses. Truth be told, I liked it so much I bought it for myself several years ago and have been 'advertising' it ever since.

This book may turn out to be my all-time favorite book of bilingual poetry. The frosting on the cake, so to speak, turns out to be the art work accompanying the poetry. Each time I read one of the poems I like it better than the last time. And these are carefully selected, excellent quality poems: with writers such as Octavio Paz, Alberto Blanco, Rosario Castellanos (and many more) how could they not be terrific? A lasting gift for any occasion, especially for someone interested in bilingual stories from Mexico.

Being a beginning self-taught student in Spanish with a special interest in Mexican Spanish by way of my residency in Texas, I took a chance on purchasing this bilingual book and was more than delighted by what I found inside. The convenient side-by-side text of the poems and short stories makes it easy to follow the translations and improve language skills. However, the real treasures in this book are discovered slowly, as one peruses the glowing artwork by various Mexican artists in conjunction with the inspiring words that seem to interweave themselves into the pictures. This is a book to sit back and savor during personal quiet time, or to read to your children. The melodic rhythms of both the Spanish and English texts rock the heart and soothe the soul.

The more crowded life gets the more I love to look at these beautiful pictures. Genuine grace at its best. It is one of my most favorite coffee table books. If you love the sea you must have this book.

Marvelous book, however, remove the outer protective cover and be sure the title on the hard cover is not on the back and upsidedown as mine was when I removed the cover 11 months after purchasing the book.

This is a wonderful book for anyone who loves dolphins, whales and other sea life. It has lots of beautiful artwork with thoughtful quotes beneath. There is also some interesting information on Wyland.

First, there is a section on whales, followed by one on dolphins, manatees and other sea life. Next, there are several collaboration pieces. Wyland worked with artists such as Jim Warren & James Coleman to create many stunning pieces.

I especially liked one with babies & dolphins he worked on with Janet Stewart. I also loved the section on the whaling wall murals. The walls are shown both in-progress & finished.

I found the information on each wall and about how the walls came to be fascinating. A detailed list on of all the walls & their specifications as well as a list of all the Wyland galleries are a nice bonuses.

This is absolutely a "MUST HAVE" book! The dust jacket alone is beautiful, but just wait until you see the artwork inside! "Breathtaking!" Wyland fans, you're really missing out if this book's not in your collection.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book (and continue to do so). It not only incorporated some of Wyland's finest works but the work of other artists that collaberated with Wyland on some of his murals (i.e. the landscape/sky portions). There is a fine display of diversity, beautiful color combinations, and wonderful surreal artistry. I have enjoyed Wyland's works for many years and I highly recommend this book! The quality of the color reprints of his work is excellent. I am a muralist and this book truely inspires me!

Vibrant reproductions of Homer's watercolors bring the vivid hues of his art out for visual appreciation. You know, what else can I say? I love Winslow Homer's paintings and this book showcases them pret-ty dang well. Worth the money. Worth the time. Buy it. Reside with it. Love it. Tell your friends. Take it to tennis matches. Read it while driving on the autobahn, and then (not uncoincidentally) mention it in your will. It's a nice book!

This book was by far the best book I have read about any of the well-known artists who have preferred watercolor as a medium. I am an artist getting back into the field after around 30 years, and I took up watercolors about 3 years ago. The book has most definitly contributed to my understanding of this medium, mostly because it was written for artists and therefore contains loads of information about the daring ways in which Homer experimented with this little understood medium. There is a lot of detail about each work, both scientific and technical, and besides, I got to know the man. I understand now why Winslow Homer is important the in history of watercolour -- he was corageous in the use of the medium, and did not limit himself to the European tradition of watercolor. He was an excellent draftsman (confirming my insistence to become a master draftman too), and set the standard high for any aspiring watercolor artist. A MUST for any professional who would become an expert in this difficult medium. Judy Moraga, Caracas, VenezuelaWatercolors by Winslow Homer: The Color of Light (Art Institute of Chicago)

Winslow Homer - The Color of Light is a work of amazingly penetrating scholarship on many levels that examines the techniques and the pigments and papers used by this foremost of native American watercolorists, as well as much else. Every time a book on Winslow homer comes out, one assumes it will be the last, then yet another emerges that is nevertheless of immense value in understanding this painter. Winslow Homer - The Color of Light is such a book.

This is an invaluable book on Winslow Homer's watercolors with superb color photographs and technical details.
TEDESCHI, MARTHA; DAHM, KRISTI; WALSH, JUDITH; and HUANG, KAREN.

Watercolors by Winslow Homer: The Color of Light

The Art Institute of Chicago, Yale University Press, New Haven and London2008

978-0-300-11945-9

228 pages, index of technical terms, extensive references and bibliography, copiously illustrated with excellent color plates.

This catalogue accompanied an exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago in spring 2008. Technical information about Winslow Homer's watercolor technique is woven throughout the entire text. Homer's career in watercolors is carefully traced beginning with his self-taught, trial-and-error early watercolors. He began using watercolor as an independent medium in 1873. His method was often to paint quickly in the open air or to develop a watercolor from a careful pencil study. He seems to have informed himself by reading treatises on the medium. Favoring papers of moderate texture, he opted for opaque watercolor at first but sometimes combined transparent washes and opaque passages. He usually began by laying out the central motif with graphite lines. Technical variety was established early and would endure throughout his career. Homer's "Bible" was Chevreul on Colors.

By the early 1870s Homer was an accomplished draftsman. To achieve brightness and opacity he used zinc white watercolor, mixing it with and layering it under transparent watercolor. By 1878 he carried out some works entirely in transparent watercolor. For "Weary" he selected an off-white, medium-thick sheet with a rough, twill texture and used a dry brush method for sunlight hitting the tree trunk. In the fall of 1880 he dedicated himself to painting in transparent watercolor and appropriated a new range of transparent pigments including three blues: Antwerp, indigo, and Prussian. A chart is provided of his pigments from 1878 to 1903.

Many of his watercolors were on Whatman paper, handmade from linen fibers and infused with gelatin size. This size sometimes attracted mold which appeared in scattered spots of foxing. The Whatman paper was bound in a solid block with a gumlike adhesive and gauze on four sides. His brown laid papers, containing red and blue fibers were made by the French manufacturer "Saint Mars." Among the remains of Homer's studio materials are two Winsor and Newton "Japanned tin boxes" containing moist watercolor cakes. They contained glycerin, a wetting agent that retains moisture and causes the immediate release of color when touched with a rough brush. Two of his watercolor brushes are pictured; they are made from sable bristles set into a swan quill that was stripped of its feathers.

Homer sometimes transferred designs using carbon paper. Examination under ultraviolet light reveals the artist's use of madder lake; in "Two Boys Watching Schooners" of 1880, the madder lake was used over the figures and rocks to convey the sun's warmth. He sometimes used blotting to create atmospheric textures or would wet, blot, and scrape areas. Scraped passages are recognized when viewed at an angle; the broken and disrupted paper fibers in these areas have a softer look than the uninterrupted surface. Homer sometimes used sandpaper to abrade both pigment and paper to reveal the white substrate below; this method created a speckled texture, taking away pigment only from the highest points of the rough paper while leaving it in the surrounding interstices. Occasionally, Homer abandoned his brushes and tools and manipulated watercolors directly with his fingers. Other techniques discussed include applying broad flat washes for sky and water, painting wet-on-wet to create atmospheric effects, spattering to produce the effect of salt and humidity hanging in the air, tamping the brush to construct thin wispy tops of pine trees, using a knife to create white highlights, and using a resist, possibly of white lead, a drying oil, and a resin, to block off areas. Alterations were sometimes made by scraping. Infrared images of the graphite underdrawings may reveal significant changes in composition. Homer sometimes cropped the works; the trimmed edges appear slightly uneven and lack the adhesive residue from the watercolor drawing block.

Homer would sometimes place tracing paper over a watercolor, outline the main elements with a soft graphite pencil, and place the tracing face down onto a copper plate to transfer the image for an etching. Some of the red lake pigments in Homer watercolors have faded. The original color may be preserved where it was covered by a window mat or frame rabbet edge.

For those of use who revere Homer as a great American artist and who particularly love his watercolors, this book is what we've waited for. I only wish some of the details and close-ups (which are stunning!) were larger.
One reviewer said that her watercolor teacher is considering a course with this book as a basis. Great idea. I've taught watercolor at Fullerton College for sixteen semesters and I would love to do the same. For years my students and I have conjectured on how Homer worked. This book answers almost every question that can be answered. And the reproductions are excellent. And the work is breathtaking.

This book is an excellent view into the highlights of M. Parkes work. One could sit for hours gazing at the paintings that are in this book. Also a very inexpensive way to preview prints I might buy in the future.

A beautiful book, one that you can keep as a reference on on the coffee table. Beautful, beautful book

This book is an absolute bargain. The art is gorgeous, and very well reproduced. Thankfully, NONE of the artwork spans more than one page, and cuts the piece in half. All of the prints are on the right page, and a commentary (including date, title, and size) is on the left page. My only complaint is the text. Parkes actually comments on approximately 1 in 4 of the prints. The rest of the comments are not words of the artist, but "meaningful interpretations" from misc. sources. The commentary from these sources varies from interesting to pathetic. IMHO, the only comments worth reading are the ones from the Parkes, which are in quotations. All in all though, this is a MUST BUY if you like the work of Parkes. You will be delighted, I guarantee it.

This book contains not only a wonderful collection of works by Mr. Parkes, it also has a short statement from the artist on the meaning behind, or the inspiration for the piece. He gives you just enough information to see where he is coming from, without interfering with personal interperetations. A great gift! (Thanks for the book, Dad!)

This is a magnificent book. The large illustrations and text that accompany them are beautiful to look at and insightful. We all interpret his work in our own way, it's nice to see how the artist himself interprets his work. I have several of his books and like them all, but this is my favorite.

do not read this book, it's Too Good.
i professed to a bookshop, "most people buy it because it's shiny, but it's actually a Great work of Genius," that was just a common marketing ploy used in media & politics, propaganda or more aptly, less-than-half truths used to mass-hysterically sway popular opinion. No one is buying Xerø.
the silver reflective cover designed to snaz-up the flashiness instead of causing the Art-Literary-Masterpiece to stand-out on the shelf actually only reflects the books beside it, making it essentially invisible.
the Work is such a complete Representation of Life you can't even see it. hence: "is what it ism" the religion.
also see ref. Xerø: "nutella & fluff on the common denominator of slice," Laruocco wants to be the dichotomy of eastern & western culture, spreadable, drinkable, freezable; the Lowest Common Denominator Of Language.

illustrated vibrantly with vivid photographs mixed with drawings, chapter titles include:
the Melding American Capitalism -&- the CAPITALIZATION of G O D.
the shapes the Vowels take on your face A e i o & u, & the double You. [---what part of "NO" don't you understand? ---the K & the W ]
"is what it ism" -- the religion. 'mASS':: word is a diction, words are a diction!
the 12-steps of Ass Synonymous, an in-depth synthesis application of a spiritual discipline.
the 'Ad(Ass) replacement strategy' an attempt to conform to language through trash chic advertisement.
products like: Butt & kNOwSe Curiosity Remover Cream™ - No's if's &'s OR's But's about it,-- Break your chains of thought!
'A Parody Keeps the Doctor Away.' etc.
Laruocco invented the mixed metaphor before they were called mixed metaphors, before it was looked down upon, that 'she mixes metaphors'. She'd patented her Laruoccan®™© technique before copyrights became fashionable & Genericide became poetic. her words make ¢. clairvoyant kleptomania when i stole your ideas before you have them.

Xerø is like a children's book for adults who liked the straightforwardness of the 3 bears but refined & tainted their intellect beyond years of mass media. The story begins: "She goes to the doctor to fix the crack in her ass." & it continues to conclusion.

i have schizophrenic sub-divisiaries hence the "La Ruoc & co." publisher who Represent you... so you can BLAME them when people look at your book & Gasp "WHO Published this!" i say... "the other girl." (im thinking the other girl too) but she's the same girl under the same wig at the same time.
Xerø sites references to: "the diamond sutra," the Buddhist bible; "I & Thou," Martin Buber; & "Magick, book 4 liber ABA" Aleister Crowley.

This here shiny book is just bursting with some of the most interesting pieces of artwork I've been privy to sift through in a great long while. If you're interested in playing it safe, and not expanding those brains of yours, then go and commit suicide... otherwise, go ahead and give a gander at this crazy masterpiece, known only as Xero!

-Blister Herzog

here is my homemade attempt at reviewing what is above reVIEWs/like a shirt for madonna concert in puff paint/ if you are looking at this before the new year begins, then reading this book would be a way to save yourself from another year in the dark. if it is after the new year, then don't wait any longer to read it. PreSUMing you are reading this, you like books, so you've got a chance. But all your life, you have probably been using words with some thought, but xero awareness of their vitality, ASSuming them to be iron little SOLDiers/soldEARS without souls or feathers or intentions of their own. LA Ruocco has somehow birthed what can only be described as a tremendously disorganized frenzy of thought/ picture a sky ravaged by comets/ basically, an exquisite wreckage of language, and on each page there are multiple moments when: when hunter s. thompson (may his gonzo genious requies in pacem /or Vegas) shot out the phrase "Buy the ticket, Take the Ride" he was talking about this.

La Ruocco's Xero is epistemological profanity at its cleverest. A chaotic but perfect world to explore. For the lover of art that makes you think and laugh, Xero is, as Robert Bork once said, an 'intellectual feast.'

Xero mixes free-associative, recursive, pun-filled, and at times startlingly clear prose on topics from religion to La Ruocco's ass. To itemize the topics, to give away too much detail, would be to ruin part of the fun, which is discovery. The book unfolds, the ideas link and fertilize each other.

Interspersed throughout is copious color photography, much of it including said ass and the rest of Laruocco's stunning beauty.

Collaborative portions include a conversation about intellectual property and pornography with John S. Hall, and documentation of a scheme with Michael Portnoy to replace Calvin Klein ads with their own ass-based versions.

Xero is less a book than a journey and a performance piece. But that's wrong. That's because we have preconceptions of what a book should look like, be like, act like. When you spend time with Xero you are provoked, stimulated, tickled. You don't just read about experiencing; you experience. You'll be enlightened, exhilarated and entertained by the journey.

--- (...)

If you haven't read Laruocco's Document Zippo, you have missed one of the more significant events in literary history.
Any fear that she was a one-shot author is delightfully vanquished by the publication of Xero. In an age when economy determines the list of authors released by major publishers, L.A. Ruocco is fiercely unique and independant. Xero bridges the gap between western and eastern civilization and bi-polar thinking in the lowest common denominator of a language which, although appearing to approach neology at times, is in fact precise and deep. Her work will be current and flourishing long after her detractors have learned to cohabit with the dust.

Excellent resource for learning about the ins and outs of getting your songs copyrighted and published. Simple, well-thought-out and professionally done. A must-have cassette for your car.

I am a songwriter and have long looked for a concise, practical guide and overview of the songwriting business. THIS IS IT!!!!! I would recommend this audio cassette to anyone and everyone interested in this business of songwriting. It replaces confusion, mystery and 'overwhelm' with a really tangible, step by step understanding of what needs to happen, and how to do it.

This book clearly presents the information needed for an unsigned songwriter to take steps to becoming a published (signed) songwriter. The chapters are well organized and the reader's voice is easy to understand. I have been a music publishing professional for 20 years, and this book answers all of the questions most frequently asked by novice songwriters. Highly recommended!

Being in the music industry for the past several years working with an indie record label, Lansdowne, Winston, Bloor, Hoffman House Music Publishers, SGA and writing for Music Connection Magazine and SunsetStripRadio.Com, I've met a lot of eager songwriters/artists trying to break into the industry and this book would be absolutely perfect them. Like most struggling artists, it's hard to find time to sit down and read, let alone work all those odd jobs (or that one job that's less than ideal), write songs, rehearse, do the club networking-thing, and live a life worth living. You can listen to this book and let it sink in slowly, passively, painlessly, etc. NO READING REQUIRED..haha...Aaron talks about various resources to help you get started on your pitching spree, specifics about copyright, collaboration, etc...Do your songwriting dreams a favor and get this book/tape.

I've been a songwriter for 20 years - the last 9 of which professionally, meaning I've been lucky enough to have gotten paid for it. I also teach songwriting for UCLA Extention, The Songwriters Guild of America and many other songwriting organizations throughout the US and Canada. I will be recomending Mr. Mezza's "You've Written a Song..." to all my students as well as my professional colleagues. This information is vital to the beginning songwriter and timeless to the veteren. If you put words and music together...GET THIS TAPE. Phil Swann, staff songwriter for Dreamworks SKG.

This is a fantastic book but I don't think most people would want to spend nearly $500 for a copy. I was able to find a copy on AbeBooks (in Germany) and had it shipped to the U.S. for less than $50 total. If interested try AbeBooks or Alibris. I hope all lovers of Tanguy's work can get a copy. Even if you can only get a German language text version the color plates and reproductions are worth the purchase!

I purchased this as a Christmas present to myself this year. It has become my favorite gift. I love Tanguy's paintings! Along with Miro', he was my favorite Surrealist. It's good to see some pictures of the man and his life. Nice illustrations. Informative.

This is a long-overdue volume, fully and gorgeously illustrated, covering the life and works of, in Breton's words, "the purest surrealist." The reproductions are masterful and directly relevant to Tanguy's development, while the commentaries remain truly informative without foundering in the numbing dryness so typical of this type of overview. Tanguy's fantastic, evocative visions have not received anything near the attention lavished on artistic compatriots such as Dali, perhaps because the former's near-eremetic lifestyle seemed to put his graphic revelations of the subconscious totally beyond the pale of rational understanding. This book finally provides a clear passageway into Tanguy's universe.

I am by no means an "ART" person, but there are a few artists that tickle my untrained eye, and Tanguy is on top of my list.
This is a comprehensive and insightful look into the works of this underappreciated surreal artist. Move over DALI here comes Tanguy! Get this item while you can!!!

No library of 20th century art would be complete without this splendid overview of the life and work of French-American artist Yves Tanguy. The background and technical information is thouroughly researched and wonderfully written, and the illustrations, including the flawless color plates of the paintings, are sumptious and wonderfully reproduced. A very well-designed and well-made book, too. Buy it!