Artists Books

Barton's work is amazing. I've seen many of the pieces featured in his book and they are breathtaking and hilarious.

Anyone who has ever collected anything will be mesmerized by this book.It shows what it means to be bitten by the urge to "collect".There are many terms used to describe it; collections,assemblages,amassment,stockpile,assortment,bunch,hoard,gathering and many other descriptions. The thing is,that with a personal collection ,there are absolutely no nules,other than those the collector decides to impose upon himself. Even then,the only reason for restrictions is that the collection is forever struggling to get out of hand;not that some object isn't worthwhile. The one thing every collector soon learns,and which is immediately evident with this collector and his museum and book,is that the real fun is in acquiring the object and the people and experiences along the way.No sooner is an object added to the collection,catalogued and given its home,in a box,drawer,shelf,cabinet,or whatever;that accomplishment is absorbed;now onward and upward to the next.
Some collectors start off with the objects in mind and set out to acquire them.The author does some of that,as do any collectors,but his approach is to be totally open for any item;and in most cases had not even thought of the object before it ,or the opportunity, presented itself.
I have always admired the art of collecting,even as a kid;and as an adult have a special admiration for a collection that is unique or "off-the - wall",such as this one. How anyone can go through life and never collect anything always amazes me.I guess come people do it with money,taking trips,buying companies,having mistresses,or whatever;and isn't that all the same thing?
The author with his collection shows that it can be,but it is not necessarily,a matter of money,to build a collection. Even in his case,when people get to know what his interests are; the "stuff"just keeps coming and coming.
Keeping the whole thing focused and controlled becomes a major problem.
Personally,I have been a collector most of my life.
The first one I dreamed up as a kid was a twig collection.In my hometown was a Government Experimental Farm featuring,trees,plants and other agricultural sciences. One day,I noticed that trees were labeled with their species in English and Latin. So,off I'd go with my little notebook,pencil and jackknife and clip me a twig. I would display it by splitting the twig,exposing the inside,alongside with the bark .
There is no limit to what one can collect other than ones imagination,and of course where to keep it all.
In no way,have I taken this obsession as serious as the author;but I do have something from my time in New York,where I worked a block away ,while they were building The World Trade Towers.During the initial excavation;I picked up a piece of the bedrock.It is a piece of Gneiss ,with tiny,sparkling ruby-red Garnets in it .Worth nothing but its sentimental value. Then later, when they were covering the outside of the the plaza with marble,I picked up a piece .There was a pile of scrap pieces.Though,who would have thought at the time,these pieces would have made great bookends.
I am sure every knows someone who collects something,be it stamps,coffee spoons,Election paraphernalia,coins,matchbook covers,swizzle sticks,beer cans,puzzles,books,postcards,etc.I have a friend who collects a little soil,sand or stones,from famous spots,beaches etc. and displays them in little bottles. Worthless, but for the memories.
I have another friend who ,has a fairly large property ,and through the years collected various species of birch trees, and now has probably the largest collection in the Province.Part of his enjoymentis in having Naturalist groups visit him as he tells the source of them and the stories behind them.
All in all ,a fascinating read for anyone bitten by the "collecting bug".

As you browse the book you think, "How did the artist get this stuff? How do we know it's authentic?" Then you trust that it is, because he would have artistic integrity. "Who cares!" you say to yourself. You're in the next phase of enjoying the book - the voyeuristic delight of being so up close and personal to all these bizarre snipets of fame and history. What a collector! Thoroughly enjoyable!

I think that readers will most enjoy this book if they, like Benes, have a compulsion for keepsakes. But this book is not a typical museum (even though Benes calls his curio cabinets "museums"-probably ironically?). He preserves mostly mundane everyday objects that are identifiable as extraordinary only by descriptive captions; this is what makes his work fascinating. But Benes doesn't approach "preservation" as a museum would; like saints' relics, he willingly destroys some objects to maximize the number of relics, which he then sells. Most museums would never do that--at least not with a typical painting or sculpture. When Benes got Julia Child's mug, he apparently broke off the handle. He put a Picasso lithograph in a blender, and then sold it in cocaine bottles by the gram. Eventually, when down to the last vial, he blended the remainder with plain paper and sold "cut" Picasso. His work made me think about why we preserve what we do, what it is we are trying to remember and record about our lives and our society, perhaps especially why a brush with celebrity makes an object special. The joy of the book, however, is Benes' storytelling. No less voyeuristic than marveling at his friend's prosthetic testicle or Eunice Shriver's toothbrush, there is guilty pleasure in reading the stories of how Benes or his friends acquired the relics... often by stealing.

I gave Curiosa to friends, relatives and business associates for Christmas this year and it was a hit every time. The book itself is beautifully produced, with gorgeous photography and excellent design. Benes' text is funny, engaging and insightful. Leafing through the book is addictive; once started, it is difficult to put down. I hope Benes produces more books of his work. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil author John Berendt's humorous introduction tells the story of how he saved a prescription medicine bottle ("one nasal douche, use twice daily or as needed") belonging to Roy Rogers for 30 years, not knowing what to do with it but not quite being able to throw it away. When he meant Benes at a dinner party, he knew he had finally found its ultimate home, in one of Benes' museums. Some of Benes' relics could cause squeamishness in a different context, but Benes' work and in particular the beautiful presentation in Curiosa, makes them palatable and meaningful to virtually anyone.

The book is trully great.... very well written and thoroughly analized...My only problem with it was the lack of colour plates (understanding that the study of his technique is concentrated on the orchestration of planes and volumes). I believe the study of this master requires colours... in order to fully appreciate his methods but also becuse of the pleasure of merely being a spectator and enjoying his art for what it really is...a ballet of fantasy and life!
Appart from that I do believe it is a must for any lover of art.

When I first read this book, over twenty-five years ago, I thought it was the most remarkable book ever written on how an artist composes and organizes his or her creative process. Over the years, I've returned to it many times. Having recently re-read the book I find I am still thrilled by Loran's ability to illuminate the special qualities within Cézanne's canvases. As an artist and art educator, Loran was in a unique position to comprehend how this artist balanced the formal, intuitive, and experiential aspects of composition. All of this comes through admirably and clearly. Although I imagine some people might find the graphic diagrams cold and remote from the vitality of Cézanne's painting, I think a close reading of the book demonstrates that an illustrative graphic can help us reach a deeper understanding of the artist at work, in this case Cézanne. If you are a fan of Cézanne, definitely read this book! If you are interested in understanding the artistic mind, definitely read this book.

Many of Cézanne's paintings are essentially composed of flat, homogenous planes. He has no interest in textures and takes great freedom in choosing colours and distributing them patchwise. He also disregards proportions and perspective, making receding objects such as roads, mountains and hills stand up straight, so to speak, to the picture plane. Thus each plane in the painting "remains comparatively flat and parallel to the picture plane", but still the painting has a definite feeling of depth because of "the three-dimensional effect that a sequence of the same planes creates through overlapping" (plate XIII). "Cézanne's genius in organizing three-dimensional space is the basic foundation of his composition" and doing so by the plane colour patch approach agrees with the principle that a painting "must remain faithful to its own structure, to its fundamental two dimensions" (section XV). The organisation of space is achieved by the "tension" or "movement" created where planes overlap, and this is Loran's main framework for analysing Cézanne's paintings. With some imagination and many useful geometrical diagrams we can sum up the effects of the overlaps to a general movement; usually some sort of circular movement, always staying within the picture frame. Loran is very faithful to this point of view, even blaming Cézanne when it doesn't apply. In his analysis of a Sainte Victoire painting (plate X) he finds such a circular movement and concludes: "It is this circular movement that gives the painting it ultimate 'closed' effect. Actually, this canvas has many elements of open form ... personally, I find these latter elements insufficiently resolved and somewhat disturbing." Besides this analytic framework, Loran also makes more traditional analyses in terms of balance, dynamics, etc., and he also spends far too much time nagging about two pet topics: Cézanne's famous colour modulations are in fact of incidental importance and Cézanne anticipated Picasso and Braque.

Pages 17 to 24 are a so called "Illustrated Glossary" and are worth buying the book for. The classic rules of space and depth and planes are explained in most of their complexity. Then he discusses many many examples of Cezanne's work and how they use the principles of space, planes, and depth. A masterpiece and extensive in its scope. If you really want this type of abstract picture understanding you will not be disappointed. Very highly recommended.

This book is a must read not only for students of Cezanne and Cubism, but for anyone who would like to understand how a composition is put together. By comparing photographs of subjects painted by Cezanne, to the paintings created, one can see what interested the master in his own work. Cezanne's classic remark about Monet ("He is only an eye. But what an eye!")is clearly relevant here: Cezanne is not only an eye function, but a meditation on the process of visual construction per se. A stimulating and important book.

The new collection of writings, sketches and diagrams from Da Vinci's notebooks embraces all aspects of his creations, from art to science, medicine, music and even urban planning. This new edition includes an essay on his life by Emma Dickens and is published to coincide with the film of THE DA VINCI CODE on May 19th.

Diane C. Donovan, Editor
California Bookwatch

As and uneducated man, uninfluenced by the university studies, Leonardo went o developing science of his own. He drew his own conclusions from observing the nature and used his newly acquired knowledge to create made hypotheses' about his findings and set up experiments to test his own ideas. Among his inventions were catapults, techniques for digging tunnels and drying up moats, etc. Not to forget Da Vinci's contribution to the art!!!! Da Vinci was a genious of all times. I also suggest reading Tesla: Man Out of Time

Nothing of Leonardo DAVinci's sketchbooks were published until the 20th century. These are some of the most important documents of the Renaissance, and they did not become known until the 20th century. There are still people who do not know how important this work was. His anatomical studies were a watershed moment, because they introduced visual diagrams as the standard for communicating knowledge of the body and self. This was no more and no less than the conviction that the true knowledge of the shape of any body could only be arrived at by seeing it from different aspects. The truth of the body, the truth of the human being can only be discovered by looking at the body from multiple aspects, like; level, motion, perspective, transformation and growth. He opened up the body, it had always been closed, now its open. Now, what goes on inside the body is going to give us the essence of what it means to be human. It is the internal struggle, the self with the self, within .you. When you look at his sketchbooks, you see just one place where the whole world opens up.

Leonardo DAVinci-- Leonardo DAVinci invented the modern self. He invented the modern self precisely in this way, through the perspective of disappearance. What he tells reality and us about the self is that it only exists by that which is perceived by the eye. Reality is a product of nature; reality is that which we perceive by the eye. Reality is only that by which we can see. Moreover, in his notebooks he gives us another foundational belief about the human subject and its form. That the sound rules are the issue of sound experience and observation. Experience and observation can only be our best teacher. Of course, this is also, what Voltaire is telling us to by the way. The challenge comes when we realize that we are both to the subject observing and the object that is observed. In our search for self, we experience a kind of division between our constitutions as objects and our constitution as subjects. However, when we look at the human form, when we look at the self we find that the body is in harmony with nature, and that it is in harmony within nature. How does DA Vinci make these kinds of claims? Alternatively, how does he ground these kinds of claims with the function of the eye or the power of the eye? Well, one of the ways he does it is thru the camera obscura. Earliest record of use of camera obscura is in DA Vinci's writings. The camera obscura gave birth to the science of optics, the science of seeing. It is with DA Vinci, that the science of seeing became the foundation of self-representation, a representation called the self, thus the representation of the human form. Now DA Vinci embodied his own concept of the painter, as philosophers. He saw painters principally as natural philosophers. To him, nature was all important, absolute, the image of the eternal. In one very significant passage of his notebooks, he defines the relationship of art to nature and its process of evolution. "The painter will produce pictures of small merit, if he takes for his standard the pictures of others. If he will study from natural objects, he will bear good fruit, as was seen in the painters after the Romans always imitating each other until their art constantly declined from age to age. Therefore, this was paramount for him in some ways what he was doing, and thinking was very radical and revolutionary and in other ways, it was very traditional. He appears to be quite a traditionalist, he studied ancient sources, Greeks, medieval sources, he studied anatomy, and these traditions get him to compare the microcosm of the body and the macrocosm of the world. These analogies extend to everything that he attempted to trace, to record and to know about the human form. Comparisons between the arteries in the body and the underground rivers of the earth. The flow of blood to the head in relation to the circulation of water to the summits of mountains. How does blood get to your head? If you want to understand that then understand how water flows up to mountains. Blood when it bursts in the veins of your nose and water rushing out of a vein in the earth. Almost everything that occurs in the human body can be found in the natural world. His interest in these analogies becomes very evident in the notebooks and sketchbooks. Scholars argue that these microcosm and macrocosm analogies are more than outright comparisons that belong to a pre scientific age, they lead him to compare the study of the body and Ptolemy's study of the earth. Consequently to use Ptolemy's method in the geography as the starting point for his own systematic study of anatomy. Therefore, anatomy and geography here become one in DA Vinci's mind. The forms of the earth and those of the human body have a parallel. "Thus in 15 entire figures you will have set before you the microcosm on the same plan as was before me adapted by Ptolemy in his cosmology, and so I shall afterwards divide them into limbs as he divided the whole world into processes. Then, I will speak of the function of each part in every direction putting before your eyes a description of the whole form and substance of man as regards his movements from place to place by means of these different parts. Thus if it please our great author I may demonstrate the nature of men and their customs in a way I describe this figure." Therefore, within the human form and within the kind of intricate details of human anatomy he discovered a way of describing and recording, not only the geographical construction of the natural world, but of Divinity itself. And when you look more closely at the system he devised to study the body, the more carefully you look at his drawings of the human form the more clearly you begin to recognize how strikingly stunningly original it is.

Earlier authors had relied exclusively on verbal descriptions of the human body. The human body had been a verbal entity but he emphasis visual description and some of the illustrations he has to bring visual dimensions to the philosophy of Plato, Aristotle the descriptions put forward by these men he presents in visual terms in these kind of body scapes. In the course of 20 years, roughly from 1489 to the end of his life, he dissected about 19 corpses and became very much obsessed with dissection. He drew these parts of bodies in minute detail every part of the human anatomy, he would draw each piece separately, together and at different angles. He laid out bodies in his drawings to mime classical poses in painting. He is referencing the history of art with the poses and the visual representation of the human subject. It is presented to us that deeply challenge these values of human nature, of life and death of living form and the cadaver it really raises some profound questions. The problem is in order to get to those questions, in order to explore some of the deeper philosophical implications of his work you have to get past the gross factor and the moral and ethical questions that his work raises. He is an artist that works very consciously with the sense of the ethical lines that he is crossing; he is not an artist that wants to make you comfortable. He sees that blood gets in the way of his observations, so he advises that you make a model of the body part and then you draw it. Model making and scientific art go hand in hand for him. You have to reconstruct reality before you can represent it. Therefore, before you can draw what is real you have to make it yourself. One of the most striking features of the notebooks is the manner in which he presents his work to us. There are no criticisms of the shortcomings that he has discovered in earlier authors, he does not boast about his own accomplishments, his writing style is pedagogical, and he is writing a teaching manual with descriptions and advice. Therefore, if you want to draw a lung, here is how you should do it. What he is trying to do is to convey to a larger audience this method of presentation and by representing human form, he relies on diagrams, and his reliance apparently causes some serious problems for the printing presses of the day. It also caused real issues for publishers because of the graphic nature of the work.

This was very important for medicine. He shows us we can separate human emotions and passions from the human body in understanding human form, and what it means to be human. There is a purely clinical dimension and this other dimension of feelings and emotions, and they do not have to come together at all, this is radical.

Thus again, this inside outside, you see it everywhere in his work. Why are we fascinated with the painting of the Mona Lisa? Because of the question we always ask, what is going on inside? The study of the Mona Lisa, it seems to me has always been organized around precisely the question that drove DA Vinci in his research. All his sketches in this obsessive and fanatical devotion to drawing every part of the body in relationship to every other part of the body at multiple levels and multiple perspectives and in motion, outside inside. There is the outside, what is going on inside, isn't that why we are obsessed with this? This painting just demands that we try to find out what is going on underneath. The truth is underneath, behind her smile, something she is keeping from us. Yet she is revealing just enough of it to make us have to find out what is going on inside of her. It is that relationship once again between the inside and the outside.

I read this book for a graduate class in the Humanities. Recommended reading for anyone interested in history, psychology, philosophy, art, and science.

Nothing of Leonardo DAVinci's sketchbooks were published until the 20th century. These are some of the most important documents of the Renaissance, and they did not become known until the 20th century. There are still people who do not know how important this work was. His anatomical studies were a watershed moment, because they introduced visual diagrams as the standard for communicating knowledge of the body and self. This was no more and no less than the conviction that the true knowledge of the shape of any body could only be arrived at by seeing it from different aspects. The truth of the body, the truth of the human being can only be discovered by looking at the body from multiple aspects, like; level, motion, perspective, transformation and growth. He opened up the body, it had always been closed, now its open. Now, what goes on inside the body is going to give us the essence of what it means to be human. It is the internal struggle, the self with the self, within .you. When you look at his sketchbooks, you see just one place where the whole world opens up.

Leonardo DAVinci-- Leonardo DAVinci invented the modern self. He invented the modern self precisely in this way, through the perspective of disappearance. What he tells reality and us about the self is that it only exists by that which is perceived by the eye. Reality is a product of nature; reality is that which we perceive by the eye. Reality is only that by which we can see. Moreover, in his notebooks he gives us another foundational belief about the human subject and its form. That the sound rules are the issue of sound experience and observation. Experience and observation can only be our best teacher. Of course, this is also, what Voltaire is telling us to by the way. The challenge comes when we realize that we are both to the subject observing and the object that is observed. In our search for self, we experience a kind of division between our constitutions as objects and our constitution as subjects. However, when we look at the human form, when we look at the self we find that the body is in harmony with nature, and that it is in harmony within nature. How does DA Vinci make these kinds of claims? Alternatively, how does he ground these kinds of claims with the function of the eye or the power of the eye? Well, one of the ways he does it is thru the camera obscura. Earliest record of use of camera obscura is in DA Vinci's writings. The camera obscura gave birth to the science of optics, the science of seeing. It is with DA Vinci, that the science of seeing became the foundation of self-representation, a representation called the self, thus the representation of the human form. Now DA Vinci embodied his own concept of the painter, as philosophers. He saw painters principally as natural philosophers. To him, nature was all important, absolute, the image of the eternal. In one very significant passage of his notebooks, he defines the relationship of art to nature and its process of evolution. "The painter will produce pictures of small merit, if he takes for his standard the pictures of others. If he will study from natural objects, he will bear good fruit, as was seen in the painters after the Romans always imitating each other until their art constantly declined from age to age. Therefore, this was paramount for him in some ways what he was doing, and thinking was very radical and revolutionary and in other ways, it was very traditional. He appears to be quite a traditionalist, he studied ancient sources, Greeks, medieval sources, he studied anatomy, and these traditions get him to compare the microcosm of the body and the macrocosm of the world. These analogies extend to everything that he attempted to trace, to record and to know about the human form. Comparisons between the arteries in the body and the underground rivers of the earth. The flow of blood to the head in relation to the circulation of water to the summits of mountains. How does blood get to your head? If you want to understand that then understand how water flows up to mountains. Blood when it bursts in the veins of your nose and water rushing out of a vein in the earth. Almost everything that occurs in the human body can be found in the natural world. His interest in these analogies becomes very evident in the notebooks and sketchbooks. Scholars argue that these microcosm and macrocosm analogies are more than outright comparisons that belong to a pre scientific age, they lead him to compare the study of the body and Ptolemy's study of the earth. Consequently to use Ptolemy's method in the geography as the starting point for his own systematic study of anatomy. Therefore, anatomy and geography here become one in DA Vinci's mind. The forms of the earth and those of the human body have a parallel. "Thus in 15 entire figures you will have set before you the microcosm on the same plan as was before me adapted by Ptolemy in his cosmology, and so I shall afterwards divide them into limbs as he divided the whole world into processes. Then, I will speak of the function of each part in every direction putting before your eyes a description of the whole form and substance of man as regards his movements from place to place by means of these different parts. Thus if it please our great author I may demonstrate the nature of men and their customs in a way I describe this figure." Therefore, within the human form and within the kind of intricate details of human anatomy he discovered a way of describing and recording, not only the geographical construction of the natural world, but of Divinity itself. And when you look more closely at the system he devised to study the body, the more carefully you look at his drawings of the human form the more clearly you begin to recognize how strikingly stunningly original it is.

Earlier authors had relied exclusively on verbal descriptions of the human body. The human body had been a verbal entity but he emphasis visual description and some of the illustrations he has to bring visual dimensions to the philosophy of Plato, Aristotle the descriptions put forward by these men he presents in visual terms in these kind of body scapes. In the course of 20 years, roughly from 1489 to the end of his life, he dissected about 19 corpses and became very much obsessed with dissection. He drew these parts of bodies in minute detail every part of the human anatomy, he would draw each piece separately, together and at different angles. He laid out bodies in his drawings to mime classical poses in painting. He is referencing the history of art with the poses and the visual representation of the human subject. It is presented to us that deeply challenge these values of human nature, of life and death of living form and the cadaver it really raises some profound questions. The problem is in order to get to those questions, in order to explore some of the deeper philosophical implications of his work you have to get past the gross factor and the moral and ethical questions that his work raises. He is an artist that works very consciously with the sense of the ethical lines that he is crossing; he is not an artist that wants to make you comfortable. He sees that blood gets in the way of his observations, so he advises that you make a model of the body part and then you draw it. Model making and scientific art go hand in hand for him. You have to reconstruct reality before you can represent it. Therefore, before you can draw what is real you have to make it yourself. One of the most striking features of the notebooks is the manner in which he presents his work to us. There are no criticisms of the shortcomings that he has discovered in earlier authors, he does not boast about his own accomplishments, his writing style is pedagogical, and he is writing a teaching manual with descriptions and advice. Therefore, if you want to draw a lung, here is how you should do it. What he is trying to do is to convey to a larger audience this method of presentation and by representing human form, he relies on diagrams, and his reliance apparently causes some serious problems for the printing presses of the day. It also caused real issues for publishers because of the graphic nature of the work.

This was very important for medicine. He shows us we can separate human emotions and passions from the human body in understanding human form, and what it means to be human. There is a purely clinical dimension and this other dimension of feelings and emotions, and they do not have to come together at all, this is radical.

Thus again, this inside outside, you see it everywhere in his work. Why are we fascinated with the painting of the Mona Lisa? Because of the question we always ask, what is going on inside? The study of the Mona Lisa, it seems to me has always been organized around precisely the question that drove DA Vinci in his research. All his sketches in this obsessive and fanatical devotion to drawing every part of the body in relationship to every other part of the body at multiple levels and multiple perspectives and in motion, outside inside. There is the outside, what is going on inside, isn't that why we are obsessed with this? This painting just demands that we try to find out what is going on underneath. The truth is underneath, behind her smile, something she is keeping from us. Yet she is revealing just enough of it to make us have to find out what is going on inside of her. It is that relationship once again between the inside and the outside.

I read this book for a graduate class in the Humanities. Recommended reading for anyone interested in history, psychology, philosophy, art, and science.

His all inspiring nature seems to outlive time.

My only probably with this book is the repeated assumption that he was gay. First of all who cares, second of all no one really knows aside from his paintings of gentlemen and the such. I feel the book would be stronger without Emma Dickens assumptions of his sexuality. If you wanna give us the facts, then gives us the facts. The main problem with any book like this, when talking about one of the great masters, is that they feel the need to try and juice things up with unproven facts about them as if they were a screenplay for a movie that isn't quite exciting enough. And I definitely don't think that Da Vinci's story from his own writings scarcely needs assumptions like that to intrigue a reader.

Other then that, what can one say that hasn't been said before about Da Vinci!

I confess I was drawn to this book by a)the inside jacket cover photo of the exceptionally attractive young female memoirist who seemed posessed of an enigmatic, almost haunted look, and b) the mysterious suggestiveness of the book title and partially obscured cover photo -- redolent of dark family revelations -- and I was not disappointed. 30-year old Jill Christman writes a searing account of harrowing family traumas, including her own recovered memory of childhood sexual abuse, the tragic auto accident that killed the young man who was the love of her life, her older brother's being nearly scorched to death by a freak shower incident, her near life-long estrangement from her father, and the wretched death in jail of a beloved uncle incarcerated for growing marijuana. All of these dark tales are leavened with ironic humor and described in superb detail. For me, the near 20 page account of Jill's preparation of a melted cheese sandwich for her frail grandmother, the ingestion of which led to her not untimely demise, was the piece de resistance.

If you have not read this book I suggest you do. I laughed out loud, cried, and was at a loss for words with this book. I really liked how the author used the nameless voice to bring out the questions and answers from the inside. I love to read and this is by far the best memoir that I've read.

I laughed out loud, cried, and was at a lost for words while reading this book. The element that sticks out is the second voice that appears throughout the piece. I encourage everyone who loves to read to read this book. I couldn't put it down once I started. I read it in one day. Job well done Professor Christman!

This book is a perfect example of the possibilities of creative nonfiction. Like the originator of the personal essay, Montaigne, Jill Christman chooses her self as her subject-the "I"-yet, in doing so, is really writing about all of us-the "we"-of humanity. Like more modern writers-Woolf, Stein, Eliot and so on-Christman also brings to her work a richness of prose, an understanding of arrangement and construction, and the confidence to employ such techniques as flashbacks, photo collages, and intertextuality. As a teacher of literature, I enjoyed this book for all of the reasons listed above. As a person who simply loves to read, I enjoyed this book because it is a GOOD READ! Sometimes sad, sometimes happy, sometimes terrible, sometimes funny-this book consistently had me turning the pages. I certainly recommend it.

With some of the intensity of *The Bell Jar* and some of its artlessness, *Darkroom* purportedly details Jill Christman's life with disarming candor and rue. Born into a family so doggedly dysfunctional that the alternative is never an issue, the author's account of suffering bulimia, sexual abuse, and inadequate and self-centered relatives makes a sad but not an unfamiliar recipe. It is counterpointed by her many-sided love for her family and boyfriend. Interspersed throughout the scatter-shot presentation, Ms. Christman weaves the idea of art, pictorial and literary: this is a book or a photo, not life. Well, you can't have it both ways, yet if this element perforce seems insufficiently integrated, her narrative remains, despite the post-modernist consciousness, a sharply affecting story.

Brilliant! With gorgeous pictures and a delightfully clever text, A Day With No Crayons is an excellent book, to grace any child's library.
Young Liza gets her crayons taken away, after using a blank bedroom wall as her latest canvas. Crayons are her life and what will Liza do an entire day without them?! After starting out in a black and white world, Liza soon discovers the vivid color surrounding her everywhere she goes. It doesn't take long for her imagination to kick in and she begins to create masterpieces, with all that nature has to offer. Just imagine - flower petal birds, drawings made with an old red brick along a sidewalk, a tree drawn with a stick covered in mud and leaves squished in the mud, the color of meadow green, sea green and forest green. Adults, as well as children will delight in the colorful and enormously fun story!
ages 4-8
*32 pgs*

This book is beautiful to look at and a delightful read. Kids will appreciate the sympathetic narrator and adults will get a kick out of the references to major artists. It captures well the spirit of creativity with its suggestion that art can be found anywhere and everywhere!

I teach art to all ages, and there is a Liza in every class: a true artist who knows that art has nothing to do with the tools you use, but the way in which you SEE. This book makes me want to run and jump into the colorful world and engages children to do the same. Delightful!

A Day With No Crayons is a delightful children's picturebook celebrating creativity. When young Liza draws on the white wall with crayons, her mother takes them away. With the crayons gone, all the color drains from Liza's world. What is a budding artist to do? Then bit by bit, Liza discovers color in the world all around her, and that there are many new ways to express her imaginative side! The illustrations by Chad Cameron perfectly capture a little girl's enthusiasm, in this read-aloud picturebook ideal for sharing with young people who love to color.

Both the author and the illustrator make this book absolutely amazing. I love the little girl's imagination when she no longer has her crayons. However, the illustrator truly made this book come alive for me. My six year old daughter does not want to put the book down!

I will repeat what other reviewers have said, yes, this is a great book, fabulous design (duh!), etc...this book has several essays on Peter's work as well as a very informative interview. This is, alone, a reason not to miss it. Saville has been the main person to translate music culture into visual, iconic form. He discusses what he describes as "Style Culture", his formative years, in great, facile, conversational form. Of course his work speaks for itself and through the music it helped communicate, but the texts actually provided insight into how does his work come about, the process & projects, the "phases", etc...Saville the bon vivant and Saville the designer are all one. Interesting to think about in the era of mega-mass corporatization of everything. He managed to remain a Flaneur of sorts, thanks to the Mancurian accident of birth, overall charm and flawless, uncompromising work.

I first became acquainted with Saville's work with the albums he did for Joy Division and New Order over twenty years ago, the work was fresh, dynamic, elegant and beautiful then and it's still fantastic. His work is always so effortless and cool, it just IS, it doesn't try too hard. Alot of work in my profession tries too hard to be "edgy" and after two years...it ain't. David Carson comes to mind. Saville is still to this day, one of the few living designers that really matter, who consistently puts out great work. Michael Vanderbyl being the other one. The dead ones being Otl Aicher and Josef Muller Brockmann. The only quibble I have is the format, it's too small, it should be something substantial like 15x15

I am a huge fan of Peter Saville's work, and this book is everything I wanted it to be. It contains excellent reproductions of his album cover and other design work as well as interesting interviews with Saville and writings by others in the field. I read this book from cover to cover and it was never boring. Excellent for fans of Peter Saville as well as those just getting into his work.

I only wanted to write a review because this book looked lonely without a single customer review.

You need this book if you want to understand where our design-obsessive culture originated. Even if you don't give a rat's ass, if you take any kind of enjoyment from visual and conceptual aesthetics, you still need this.

It is great to flip through, the ultimate coffee table book. But suprisingly, there is just as much emphasis placed on text and context.

Even more surprisingly, it is reasonably priced.

Peter Saville has enormous talent and is unique in that he's not strictly a designer, not strictly an artist.

well, this book is... under review. see i havent made it past pg 1. n here i sit, wanting to learn french, n pondering how far ive made it into my new little read here. find myself staring at the cover, wondering what books are for, bah, brand new n pretty, so what. opened to words, creased the binding. no matter. a book is a book is a book... right? i have yet to form an opinion, this is my first review, im wondering if theres an option someplace in here where i can update my review after getting past page two. kinda doubt it, which means that ill push send on this, and that will be that.
too much to early

i hope it doesnt make me give it a star. if i have to give a star, before going a little more in depth... well, then ill give five. but let it be know, i havent yet made it past page two. guess ill have to learn a little ... i dunno what language it even is. gonna have to work a little to get through this one, my curiosity is dragging me, through all the distractions n walls around me, gives me a headache sometimes, but the language looks curious, the words. misplaced to my understanding... for the moment. translations in due

anyhow, just so you know. left the five cause i had too, not that the book is interesting or anything, just letting you know.

bah, it made me give stars. i guess whomever made this sight...
didnt allow for under review. theres some decent material in the dvd as well. but thats not here, nor there, is it?

theres about four tangents that i can think of off the top of my head right now... to many options to readers, means this is trash. or not, maybe a playground for some damn collage prof with a red fetish in language

im pushing send, n probably waisting everybodies time, seeing how, this, isnt even technically a rating of anysort. this is only page one.

This book shows why ERTE` was so admired and so popular during the 1920's-1930's and beyond.

I have always wanted to see ERTE's drawings from Harper`s because those drawings are what ERTE` was (and is) known for. Well, this large paperback book introduces the reader to some of the exciting and creative designs that ERTE` created and printed in HARPER'S BAZAAR during the 1920's and 1930's.

"WOW", is the word I have to apply to the Harper's drawings created by ERTE`!! His designs were ABSOLUTELY ahead of their time! His designs were completely amazing and creative! Erte's drawings showed the type of clothes worn by famous Hollywood actresses during the 1920-1930's!! (I can visualize Joan Crawford wearing a fabulous Erte` design!)

There are a few colored HARPER`S magazine cover reproductions in the middle of this book, but the black and white line drawings that ERTE` included in the HARPER's magazines are what draws the reader to this book.

This book is great. Erte was a genius. I love looking through this book and only wish I could sew some of the fashions.

As a designer of embroidery designs, this one was a winner for me. I love all of the publicatins from Dover!

Vogue editor Diana Vreeland once said that no one in the 20th century had a greater influence on fashion than Erte, this desite the fact that he worked for a competitor, Harper's Bazaar. That's an indication of just how revolutionary his work was for the times. Working with virtually no direction to blunt his creativity, Erte published paintings and sketches of ingenious fashions that are as playful and lighthearted as they are luxurious and exquisite. He envisioned modern women (from 1915 to 1926) as goddesses, ultra-chic stars, children of nature, and totally feminine creatures to be adored and exalted. His fashions reflect this, individualistic and charming, colorful and startlingly functional. The 8 color covers and many B/W illustrations show insight into a dimension of fashion that one normally sees only on the show runways: the never-ending well of creativity brought to life by a truly inventive mind unhampered with concerns of marketability. Peruse the illustrations and notice allusions to gardens, paper-weaving, architecture, tennis, various members of the animal kingdom, ceremonial draperies, sailing ships, and flames. Dresses, coats, masks, swimming costumes, sleepwear, and gowns all ornamented with beads, fur trim, sheer draperies, corded lacings, silver embroidery, leather and straw. Practical? Not really. Mass manufacturing? Not in a million years. This is extreme fashion, the stuff of couture, such as would be worn to the salon of writers and intellectuals. Erte loved best to design for the stage, and the drama and fantasy of theater is in evidence in each ornate illustration. Although for 3 years he produced designs for Altman and Bendel in NY, most of his work was strictly conceptual, and many readers of Harper's saved covers and sketches to muse over as they would an art history volume, as evidence of another world. Ignoring fashion trends, Erte generated innovative and outre designs that still amaze and delight those of us who appreciate true originality. I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in textile or fashion design, but also to graphic designers, sculptors, and those who really enjoy art for its own sake. This book is, in one word: luscious.

Great graphics, imaginative design, fabulous period reference. Outstanding in every way!

As an artist and print maker I can admire Goya's mastery of the media.This book allows people who may not be familiar with Goya's etchings a sense of how powerful and timely these prints are even after 200 years. I was fortunate to see the complete series of these etchings last summer at Syracuse University.I'm sure Goya would see the brutality of war that America is currently engaged in.

The Disasters of war is a difficult book to read, containing the most impressing pictures of war and its consequences. The black/white drawings are as real as life itself, and sometimes even more!

Goya depicts tortures made on public squares, people starving to death, and warriors fighting. But the most amazing is the vividness and actuality of the pictures. The Disasters of war is like a poetry book, it has no time, and no defined significance; it can be interpreted in infinite different ways and it is always an up-to-date work.

In my view, one of the best ways to fight war is using art. War leads on to war, art leads on to art. Understanding what and how war happens is essential in order to fight it (I excluded Why since I believe there is no explanation for it). This book shows the What perfectly. I have written a review of the book 'Why?' by Nikolai Popov which is about the How.

Like most dover press books, we have here a wonderful bargain: clear reproductions and good paper stock. Goya was a court painter trying to please his patrons, but in this series of etchings, he indulged his twisted soul in the first recorded anti war propaganda. These etchings are both lovely in their technique and horrifying in their imagery.

When I look at these prints, I am reminded of: the "contractors" whose dismembered bodies were hung from the bridge in Fallujah; the lynching postcards that were commonly mailed around the USA only a few generations ago to celebrate the murder of black men; Auschwitz; All Quiet on the Western Front; Sherman's March; the Trojan War; you get the idea. Unfortunately these powerful images are and shall remain contemporary. There is some topical political comment here, but you're mostly looking at the human condition, and with a few changes of costume and props, these prints are applicable to almost any conflict, anywhere. Good for the kids' room.

Consistently all things published by Dover are of the highest and most comprehensive quality technically and academically, and yet at a very low and democratic price, as if they actually wish to place high culture into the hands of the common man and the poorest person, rather than charging top dollar for instantly disposable art and airport lounge short-lived literature. Dover rather presents for our constant use high quality and durable books: Our Daily Book.

And thus this book which we need to see and weep every night as we grow dull with constant war and violence. We see here why war must wage nevermore, in this brave new era of total and indiscriminate and disproportionate yet profitable colonialist warfare.

When allowed by our media we may now see the same or similar images to these which Goya so accurately depicts, both realistically and fantastically. Goya, so well known as a painter of the Spanish courts, but also of Saturn consuming his children, here shows us grotesquely and coldly the true meaning of war, the true fruits of warfare, the moral and the spiritual causes and effects of war: the disasters of war.

As I pride myself as bilingual and am certified superlatively fluent in Spanish with some English besides, as well as a few other tongues, I found occasion here to wince at Dover's translations of Goya's carefully scripted captions, or to shout aloud more probable interpretations, yet I find this the only possible objection to this excellent and gratefully received volume, which must be on the table of every American home, lacking as we are the graphics from Fallujah or Gaza. Read this book and pray for peace. Read this book and study war no more. Read this book with Mark Twain's War Prayer, and turn aside from the ever more rugged war path surging with the blood of innocents.

Even more than Barefoot Gen, more than the immortal Guernica, more even than Speigelman's Maus series, this realistic, classical and careful draftsmanship of the great Goya brings home to us across the centuries the true horrors and disasters of war, with poignant captions. Please read this book in this excellent, scholarly and complete presentation by Dover Editions, now at an even lower price here upon the amazon. Here must we see that the victims of our violence are human beings, our brothers and sisters, children and elders, and not some dehumanized uncounted collateral statistic alienated into separate labels of faith or of nation. We strike our own family in these disasters of war. This is a powerful book which must be seen today, and most gratefully Dover offers it still upon this amazon.

This book has a ton of shortened versions of classic Disney stories, from Lady & the Tramp through Aladdin and they are all just long enough to make a good bedtime story (or two) and short enough that you don't have to slog through an entire novel. Our two kids (2 1/2 and 4 1/2) ask for a story out of this book at least once per day and often 3 times per day. (That is my wife's only complaint, that it gets requested so often!)

My child loves to read the Disney collection books. Instead of forcing him to read he now loves to read.

My daughter loves to pick out the stories by the picture in the table of contents. She knows most of the stories but wants to read them again and again. The stories are a nice length... not too long and not too short. The pictures are nice and help tell the story.

I agree with the first reveiw. This is a fantastic compilation. There are great illustrations on every page (a requirement for a three year old!),
the text is large and fairly simplistic, just right for beginning reading. The stories are long enough to entertain at bedtime but not too long, and the stickers are an extra bonus. All in all this is what I've been waiting for. Another book I received recently that has become a favorite is CLASSIC FAIRY TALES. It's a little more advance in terms of storyline but has absolutley gorgeous illustrations by Scott Gustafson.

This is a very good book. My son loves the stories. The table of contents has a picture of each of the 2 dozen stories, and he can pick out which one to read each night. It makes a perfect bedtime story. He also liked the stickers in the back. I'm here online looking for the others in the series.

We took this to the National Gallery when we took out kids there for the first time (they were 6 and 9) on our first big European trip. We asked for the specific location of the four paintings mentioned in the book, and went looking for them. It was great! The children loved spotting them, and we loved looking at everything else (a bit too fast for my liking but hey at least we got to see them!) on the way.

What a great story - dogs from actual paintings in the National Gallery in London having one night a year, "special night out" to run around free in the Gallery.....and then get mixed up and go back in the wrong paintings. My kids LOVE this book - it sets their minds racing! And hey, next time you're in London, why not take your kids to check out the paintings? (And see if the dogs are back where they belong!) This is a fantastic book... everyone (not just dog-lovers and lovers of art)will enjoy it.

There are so few kids books that make both the parent and child feel the wink of knowing what is going on while characters in the story do not. This is one of those rare rare books that succeeds on so many levels - the story unfolds visually and in the text as you gather what is going on. You aren't told - the dogs jump out of the paintings. You infer it. You aren't told the dogs re-enter the wrong paintings. You see it as various museum patrons react to the strangeness of paintings they thought they knew. And how wonderful is it to introduce grand masterpieces to kids in a way that is so much fun! My daughter loved this book, insisted we go to the art museum afterward and find dogs in other paintings. She imagined what would happen if other animals jumped off paintings and secretly partied after hours in the museum. 'Cats night out' 'Horses Night Out', etc. Run and get this book. You will be delighted.

The dogs come out of the paintings in the museum one night a year for a party. One year the remnants of a human cocktail party lead them to eat too much food and wine, and when it is time to crawl back into their paintings for another year there is a grand mixup. The paintings are real ones from the National Gallery in London. Great book. We loved it!

With 7 grandchildren, I'm always on the look out for suitable reading matter for them. Today I found a really nice book for the age group 5 to 9yrs. Dogs' Night by Meredith Hooper, fits all the requirements.

The story is set in an art museum : One night of the year, all the dogs in the paintings, jump down and have a high old time, running riot in the museum, when the staff and the public have left. This time things were just a little different! The museum hosted an art lovers function and the dogs had to wait until it was over, before they could escape their paintings and have a good time doing the things dogs do. The humans hadn't cleared away the left overs, so the dogs ate, and drank *fizzy drinks*. When it was time for them to go back into their pictures, 4 of them ended up in the wrong ones! The dog from Jan van Eyck's Painting *The Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his Wife, Giovnna Cenami* a cute hairy little beast, ends up in Gainsborough's *Mr & Mrs.Andrews. Their dog, a brown hunting dog with a white muzzle, goes to visit *Madame de Pompadour* by Francois-Hubert Drouais. Her cute little black dog with a wavy tail, finds itself down by the river in *Bathers at Asnieres* by Georges-Pierre Seurat! So...that leaves the red dog with the floppy ears from the Bathers, in the bedroom of the Arnolfini family!

Their mistake is discovered first by a little girl and then by the public. At first the Gallery staff think there is a theft, but realize that the paintings are the originals, with some very odd changes made. The media and the general public flock to the Gallery and it becomes the most popular one in the world.

A year later...it's Dogs' Night again. All the dogs in the Gallery paintings leave their pictures and run around madly doing dog things, but this time there is no *fizzy drink* to muddle them up. When it's time to climb back into the pictures, they all manage to end up in their original paintings. No one knows how it's happened...except the Dogs!

I thoroughly recommend this little book. The story is clever and well told in easy language. The illustrations are enchanting.Reproductions of the original art work have been used with permission from the National Gallery in London. It's a nice way to get kids interested in Art, even if it is looking to find the *dog* in the picture.

I'd give it a 5! Oh...and my *soon to be 5* granddaughter will have it under the tree waiting for her Christmas morning!

Vickie Bowman..Callahan's Saloon at Delphi.com.