Artists Books

Sutin has great ideas for books. I've now read four of his books, and finished all but this one because the topics were so good -- Buddhism in America, biographies of Aliester Crowley and Philip Dick, and this one, the postcard memoir, should have been a terrific book and I can't really see why it's not, except in all this time i've never warmed to Sutin as a writer, and can't quite figure out why.

This is a great book to get just because it's a great idea for a book, realized pretty well. Searching for one's lost family in the pile of crap that mounts up at the feet of the angel of History is another version of Dick's I-Ching driven narratives, or other books written with the Tarot or the Ouija board as coauthor. Whether you regard this as purely a chance operation or an embrace of synchronicity will have a lot to do with the outcome. I guess I wish Sutin had gotten more into the game of the thing than he did, but he had a memoir to get off his chest, and a family story, and kids of Holocaust survivors are always lugging that extra ton of inherited survivor guilt and whatnot: it makes them difficult, as friends. I have the same difficulties with Sebald. If you like Rings of Saturn, i'm pretty sure you'll like Sutin's memoir.

Most people witll find this small caveat pointless, and will enjoy this book for its multiple virtues. Highly recommended.

Using the visual medium of postcards coupled with creativity and philosophy and memoir of Lawrence Sutin's words gives this work life, punch and texture. It's a great work to spur your own creativity - and to satisfy the voyeuristic urge in all of us. I wish there were more truly original pieces of literature like this.

Anyone who has ever sent a postcard will be stunned and enthralled by this fascinating collection, which also includes his own intriguing inner dialogue. As a postcard connoisseur, I can only say, this man understands what it's all about!

I can't believe Lawrence Sutin has written another book - and this one is even better than the last two. What a fascinating way to structure the story of his life - by using favorite postcards that inspire memories of days gone by. I loved his book about Phillip K Dick - and the one he wrote with his parents, about their Holocaust experiences, is must-read stuff. But this one is the best yet - by turns fanciful, touching and downright funny. Bravo!

Larry has an interesting life problem -- he's the son of Holocaust survivors. His mom and dad met behind enemy lines in Poland, hiding from the Nazis -- a remarkable story he details in his tribute to their experience, Jack and Rochelle. He reveres and loves his parents, but their experience has had the effect of throwing his life into a sort of unheroic (by comparison) shadow.

Yet he has soldiered on. Larry is a gnostic by nature. By this I mean to say that Larry is, as near as I can tell, very brilliant, with a special knack for tackling arcane topics.

He wrote a celebrated analysis of speculative fiction writer Philip K. Dick a decade ago , and has followed that up with something even more Byzantine, a full-fledged biography of Aleister Crowley (Do What Thou Wilt, A Life of Aleister Crowley.

But in the meantime, he took time to create a perfectly wonderful mini-autobiography called A Postcard Memoir. It is a series of portraits from his life, thumbnails of people who have touched him, along with a few philosophical observations. The "gimmick" or hook that these 400-word wonders hang on is that each is accompanied by an antique picture postcard, which Graywolf Press has lovingly reproduced.

It is a gimmick which works smashingly. First, it is a natural one -- Larry collects postcards, and uses favorite cards as reverie objects, staring into them until the faces and places he doesn't know and hasn't visited spur a personal association inside him. A postcard labeled "Smartly Dressed Young Man" depicts "a young man of angular but easy good looks, earnestness and wit, [and] a taste for faintly wicked pranks." The picture bears an eerie resemblance to Larry's friend Bob, who can be charged with those same defects.

So Larry's essay describes his friendship with Bob, how they met as young writers (though "his subject matter was the borderlines of clarity and mine the chasm of chaos") concluding with the realization that "the best friends of my life were people who would let me be in their company and somewhat copy them."

In one essaylet after another, Sutin is unstintingly honest about what he takes to be his own defects -- an obscurity of thought, a painful bashfulness, and a feeling of not being quite right for this world -- feelings alien to all but himself.

I have only scratched the surface of his concerns. He writes about his parents, lost loves, his beloved children, his wife Mab, who from these writings appears to have been FedExed to Larry overnight from heaven, about jobs and opportunities, places that are real, and places that exist only in dreams.

It is a book of tremendous intimacy because we get to look at Larry's life in all its pimply everydayness -- but it is magical, too, because the pictures are so beautiful, and transport us into our own unspoken memoirs. It's a wonderful gift from a talented writer.

I think kids love clay and dough more than any other art medium ... and this book gives you ideas for making your own recipes with the kids, and then exploring how the doughs/mixtures react, and also making things!! The book also has some other sculpture projects thatkids love and are excellent for birthday parties or classrooms alike. These are some of my favorite ideas of all!! I hope you will enjoy them too.

MaryAnn F. Kohl

This book provides so many excellent ideas about doing art processes with my 3 year old son. There are so many art activities in this book. Art is no longer about waiting for him to pick up the crayons and draw. We go out to explore art together. We have lots of fun because of this book. It is the best preschool art book I've ever seen. I love it and recommend it!

I was happy to see these new selections from Gryphon House because they take MaryAnn Kohl's books and break them down into bite-sized pieces. While some projects may be familiar to teachers, it is wonderful to have someone like MaryAnn Kohl put them all together, add a little twist, add her own innovations, and give them to us in book form. You may think that it's easy to think up 100's of project ideas until you give it a try... but then you'll want this book so you won't have to! I've seen MaryAnn teach in workshops and she is wonderful. This comes across in her projects. She truly loves kids and wants them to be creative!

The art projects in this book are excerpted from the national best-seller Preschool Art, but all redone and illustrated in a smaller version at a nice low price. Collage is just about kids' favorite thing to do from an early age... just glue and glue and paste and tape things, like scrap paper, feathers, buttons, stickers, glitter, things collected from nature like shells and pinecones, and so on. I especially like collage because kids can work so independently, which truly gives them an opportunity to explore the process of art, without as much focus on the product. And more often than not, they will love their "products" too. Have you discovered colored masking tape yet? Orange, green, blue, etc. LOVE IT. ...is the place to find it. Easier than glue anyday. Thanks for looking at this information about my book, and don't limit its use to just preschoolers. The ideas in the book will work all the way through middle school. Great for birthday party activities too!

Would you like to bring happiness and creativity and brain development and fun, all rolled into one big wonderful ball of exploration, into your child's life? Drawing is a good place to start. Research says that children who draw on a regular basis do better in reading and math than those who do not draw. All you need is blank paper and a crayon or pencil. Seriously. That's all you need! But if you would like to offer your child even more, check out the drawing ideas in this book. Chalk, crayon, pen, markers, fingers, and more.... One of my favorite ideas is to trace around a cut out stencil shape (maybe a circle, a leaf, a heart, a cloud, triangle, anything!) with chalk, and continuing to hold the stencil in place, brush the chalk line with a tissue. Then remove the stencil. You will see a magical "burst" of soft color. You can also trace "inside" the stencil, brushing the chalk lines "into" the shape with a tissue. Remove the stencil and see a three-D balloon-like shape. Kids love this!! Thank you for caring about creativity, and it's fun anyway, isn't it? from, MaryAnn F. Kohl, maryann@brightring.com, ... Visit my website for some free sample art ideas from any and all of my books.

This is a softcover coffee table book aiming to capture Paul Pope - not just the artwork, but the person - in a single volume. I wouldn't recommend this for people totally unfamiliar with Pope's work as this book is rather expensive, but I would recommend it to sexy, interesting types (I hope you know someone like that, or see yourself that way). I love Paul Pope's drawings of strong, beautiful, not-to-be-messed-with women, and you will find many of them here. (Speaking of which, the cover shown on the Amazon product page is NOT the cover you get. Instead of a negative red/yellow image, the cover is a graphic self-portrait. I believe there is a customer image that shows this version.)

The book's main goal seems to be to provide a glimpse of Pope's creative process, as well as how his own personality finds its way into his art. He's also a great writer - the two essays on porn (or, more accurately, sex and art) are smart and thought-provoking, and also ask us to think about why we like looking at what we like looking at. My esteem of him has increased quite a bit, having seen this other side of him. Another highlight of the book is some of Pope's less well-known manga work. His reminisces of his time in Japan as one of the very few Western artists to work for a Japanese manga house reveal a hidden sweatshop type existence in the name of comics.

I give this 4 instead of 5 stars because I was hoping for more insight into Pope's best known works: his take on Batman and THB. While this isn't a major loss, it does seem remiss to leave out some juicy tidbits that would surely be of interest to those who have come to know Pope through those works.

Having this book out where it can be seen will likely get you laid by people way better looking than you are.

I've been a fan of Paul Pope since reading his THB series years ago. There's one thing that really stands out about his work--the lines seem almost imbued with a sense of energy. You can almost see the inked lines jump and move on the page, and this give Pope's works a sense of being alive. The works in this collection don't disappoint. You'll be drawn into every page as you flip through the book. Another thing that some people may overlook is that Pope is an excellent writer. This book contains several essays about his work and himself. Pope writes about as good as he draws, so it is difficult to put down the book once you start reading. I highly recommend this book.

A few warnings though: if you became a fan of Pope through his mainstream comic work, there is none of it in this book. There is a bit of THB featured (not as much as I would have liked), but most of the book consists of his private projects and illustration work. Another warning is that if you find erotic illustrations offensive, be warned that this book includes a few.

Pope's work is full of frantic, almost desperate energy. His art seems driven, and the essays in this book (I was surprised by the amount of text, but not unpleasantly, as it turned out) enhance this feeling. The book paints a picture of an artist with a great deal of passion for his work, and also a deeply thoughtful, philosophic side, and a strong respect for the history of his chosen art.

The pictures are often raw-edged, a few of them appear to have been lifted from sketchbooks or diaries, sometimes with blocks of handwritten (and not always legible) text running off the edge of the page, or stamped with rubber stamps in Japanese ("Paul Pope" "Comics Destroyer" and so on). It is deliberate, of course, and it seems right that way. Each picture is full of texture and detail, and rewards a careful viewing.

Don't just look at the pretty pictures, though. The book contains several autobiographical essays that are worth the price of admission by themselves. Pope talks about his inspirations and methods, discusses his thinking during the creation of some of the pieces in the book, and such topics as pornography as it relates to art and erotica. (Note to the prudish, a few of the pictures in this book are quite explicit. Although there are no sex acts shown, Pope is very frank about his appreciation for sex as a source of passion and inspiration, and he doesn't shy away from portraying all parts of human anatomy.) Reading the essays enhanced my appreciation for the art significantly.

It's a fine book, especially if you like Paul Pope's style. Recommended.

(As a side note, the version I received does not have the cover shown by Amazon, a drawing of a woman's face, but a black and white design based on an image of the author, I believe, and some abstract ink lines. It's not a bad cover, but I think I might have preferred the drawing.)

all in all a very cool book. being relatively new to pope (first through heavy liquid and batman 100, the best bat thing ever!) i find the book a very good intro to him, his ideas and thought process. he really seems to be on the path of re-creating / re-defining the "comic". the different essays throughout go from open self effacement to sadly comedic in his dealings with poss. employers and his tenure in japan. his knowledge of art history and his own desire to be a leader in his chosen area is very evident and well deserved.

For being an artist's opus, i would have actually preferred a bit more art (the first and usu. obvious complaint any art geek would say regardless the amount given), there too is none of the Bat 100 art here, prob. for rights reasons, fair enough. Alot of the stuff here is blown to full bleed, possibly unnecessarily so, but if one sits and meditates on those pages you begin to see something, his art does seep in and soak a bit... one cannot argue with the overall design in any way, alot of the newer art books (ash wood's stuff, james jean's) push the boundaries of the medium and give the fan what they want, possibly b/c they are fans themselves and are giving what they want from those they admire.

this one is going on the shelf between Malicious Resplendence and Lowlife Paradise...

I had never heard of this person, Iris Apfel, until I saw this book in a bookstore in Pasadena, CA. And I thought I know everyone!( from years od reading Vogue magazine) For those of you who want something different and beautiful to look at, new fashion, idea inspirations, this book is for you. She is on a design level on another stratosphere. A simply beautiful book to look at. This woman is brilliant!

I was lucky enough to view the exhibit 'Iris Apfel - Rare Bird of Fashion' at the Norton Museum in Palm Beach, and what a visual treat it was... Not only is she an icon of fashion, but her style, her combinations of colors and her very different approach to the matter is something everybody should see and study. I have seen and met her in New York, she is the most terrific person!!! The book is amazing as well, great photography!!! I will always treasure this book and every time I open it, there is something else to marvel at or read about... An absolutely great source of inspiration, that simply makes you smile! One could only wish there will be other 'rare birds' to follow her lead.

Fabulous book. I saw the exhibit at The Metropolitan Museum 3 times, and I was so disappointed that there was no catalogue. I was thrilled to see this book whole browsing at The Strand. The price on Amazon was a real bargain.

Loved, loved this book. The comments, the photography and most importantly the crediting of designers to each style was extremely well done. This rare bird of fashion serves us notice that we should embrace our individual style and glory in it and not follow the herd or be shy about manifesting our true "feathers".

This book reminds all its readers that true style grows from individuality. In a time were you would recognize a stylist's style easier than the style of a designer, Iris Apfel's approach to and interpretation of fashion is the light at the end of the tunnel, she certainly has nudged me into the one or the other "true to myself experiment". Iris Apfel's witty introduction perfectly accessoirizes the clothes and jewellery presented, not only poviding background information on how this exhibition came to life but also shedding light on a certainly most interesting and colorful life in a warmhearted and humorous way. This book most certainly will be a longterm occupant of my coffee table.

Living in a place where its rare to see an original Rauschenberg combine, this book has standout photgraphs of the works, with detailed views to complement the full image- the first two essays also provide some keen insights into the processes and influences on Rauschenberg's life and work. Definitely recommend for artists
or interested art followers. These works constitute what I think were the finest in his career.

It is great to be able to have this book as a remembrance of the great exhibition it illustrates. Every single piece reproduced here is a masterpiece of creativity and the quality of the reproductions do justice to the works of art, which is no small achievement considering that the Combines are intricate mixtures of sculptures and paintings. You also discover what a master of color the artist is, an aspect often overlooked by his critics.

This book is a catalogue for current exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and then the Museum of Contemporary Art, LA, and in Europe at the Pompidou Center, Paris and the Moderna Museet, Stockholm.

As installed at the Metropolitan Museum of art, the show is stunning. It's astonishing that this exhibit is the first time these works from the 1950's have been shown together. These "combines" -- art somewhere between painting, collage, and sculpture -- are a foundation of modern art, so much so that art of the second half of the century is hardly conceivable without them. This makes looking at the work afresh more difficult than usual, since seeing these pieces together in 2006 means also viewing through a legacy and school of influence.

But what phenomenal pieces they are! You can see Rauschenberg gobbling down visual techniques whole - collage, assemblage, juxtaposing printed images, materials, sculpture. They are daringly junky and breathtakingly beautiful. I have know idea whether you'd call this conceptual art, or the most luscious, messy opposite of conceptual art you've ever seen. The works are fearlessness. Really inspiring.

The catalogue has excellent reproductions, and the photography is quite good at conveying the depth of the pieces - some of the works are presented from several angles so the more sculptural pieces are well conveyed.

This book blatantly rocks my world. It has a very nice selection of images, and is much more affordable than the godly $900 retrospective catalogue. Amen.

ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG: COMBIINES is the name of an exhibition currently on display and one garnering some of the warmest acceptance by both critics and public alike of any retrospective survey in years. Not that Rauschenberg is a 'discovery' unearthed by this generous volume: there have been many excellent monographs and catalogues printed about this extraordinarily gifted artist who for the past half century has been creating art from found and constructed objects.

Rauschenberg's art has always had secondary messages - political, anti-war, ethnic, sexual, and ecological statements - housed in the fascinatingly complex assemblages that are part of the collections of the major museums around the world. This fine book limits its survey to the prescient years 1954 to 1964, that period during which Rauschenberg became well known and highly respected for his art and beliefs. Curator Paul Schimmel writes a fine essay about this period and accompanies his own perceptions with those garnered from a very informative shared conversation with Rauschenberg himself. Likewise Thomas Crow writes an immensely readable chapter on just how Rauschenberg came in this realm of artistic expression and from Crow's writing we learn much about the mid-century changes in American art.

The reproductions of the art works are excellent and if there aren't as many images as one would wish, it is because of the self-imposed limited time frame in Rauschenberg's career of the exhibition. A fine volume, highly recommended for all art history majors and for those under the spell of this great artist. Grady Harp, February 06

Although much of this book is a compliation of his former books, it encompasses his personal and professional history as well as his philosophy, recomendations on style, and insights about pottery, designs and life.
Every potter, and collector of pottery shoud read and own this book.

I have several of Robin Hopper's books and I have enjoyed them all immensely. I am able to find any type of info I need from these books. Well laid out, good explanation and very very useful information for a home studio potter. Cheers, Cheryl

I thought this book was great. Robin gave very good background history of his life in ceramics and his views on what he created on his long career.
I loved the pictures and his instruction on how to be the best in what you make. I have read the book cover to cover a few times and have still learned more after a second and problably a third look.I have tried a few of his ideas and had fun which I think ceramics is all about.

This book is great. Robin Hopper shares his unique background with the reader and the thought processes that have gone into shaping his life and career. His down to earth approach to doing the work he loves so much was a joy to read. The technical information in this book and the way he presents it with illustrations and examples is great. The experienced potter as well as the beginner will enjoy this book.

I am a potter. I make pots. I make a bunch of pots. I am always open for improvement, assistance, and suggestions. And I am very glad I added this book to my personal library!

Robin Hopper writes very simply about the various stages of making pottery. He profusely illustrates his techniques with photos and drawings, making the book itself a work of art. It is a pleasure to read, and an inspiration for all potters who want to learn to be better at it.

Hopper offers tips on every phase of making pots, from sketching, through preparing the clay, to making glazes. His examples are beautiful, and the descriptions are clear and concise.

If you're in one of those inevitable "slumps," I suggest Robin Hopper's "Ceramics: A Lifetime of Works, Ideas, and Techniques" to break you out of the clay doldrums and into new territory.

Maurine St.Gaudens shows great sensitivity in the layout of this book, she clearly loves her subject. There's less text than in so many artist retrospective books, instead this is a comprehensive pictorial biography, which I found very satisfying. The book covers Sam Hyde Harris' commercial illustration work extensively, which informs the reader more about the artist than any text could reveal. Harris was an artist who excelled in many mediums, his pencil sketches are divine, as are his lush paintings. I would highly recommend this book to students and appreciators of not only California art, but to anyone interested in seeing the rich visual evolution of a unique creative spirit.

Beautifully printed, LOTS of color photographs and only a little text, this book is a great way to learn about one of the lesser known California Impressionists. Paintings, posters and illustrations, compositional sketches. Best of all, there are many detail views of the paintings that allow you to see Harris' brushwork, and a couple of essays on painting and drawing that Harris himself wrote.

This gorgeous, generously sized and illustrated volume is a very good one to have for those interested in the "eucalyptus" school, Southern California Impressionism. Not only is it very informative about SHH, but also is a great collection of images of how things were - one of the attractions of these paintings generally - California's beloved scenery and atmospherics without freeways, windfarms, subdivisions, or man-made pollution. Of course it is a must-have for collectors considering acquiring works by SHH.

With only a few pages of text, perhaps little more than a dozen, plus an extensive record of exhibitions and a chronology, this is primarily a catalogue of the artist's work.

The text provides a brief introduction to Sam Hyde Harris and a very brief biography, and some short descriptions of his practical approach to his work.

The real delight of the book however is the wealth of illustrations which adorn virtually every one of the two hundred and forty pages and must total well in excess of that number. They range from the artist's graphic work and illustration, include a few personal photographs, but of course concentrate on his paintings, both oils and watercolours. All the images are in full colour with the exception of a few which for obvious reasons are duo-tone or black and white, and are beautifully reproduced

This is a truly splendid volume, of generous proportions, which clearly conveys the power of his graphic work and the subtle beauty of his paintings. This is surely a book to be highly prized.

This is a beautifully illustrated and printed book of the works of Sam Hyde Harris who was a prominent illustrator and landscape painter in the hay day of California plein aire artists. Hyde's focus on color and value in his commercial illustration work often spilled over into his landscapes and seascapes. Some of his landscapes are reminiscent of Maynard Dixon's stylized natural shapes and colors, but Harris had very much his own style. Also included in this heavily illustrated book are examples of Harris' work in wood block prints which are as good as any done in the 1920s and 1930s.
Overall, this work by Maurine St. Gaudens and collaborators is extremely well done and does justice to one of the best artists of the period.

While the content of both the hardcover and paperback is the same, the paper quality of the handcover is much better which leads to better photo quality. If this seems like an important book to add to your library I would recommend splurging on the hardcover.

A great description of commercial blacksmithing in its most successful era. Excellent pictures of some of his completed works with enough details to allow you to make them.

Samuel Yellin, Metalworker by Jack Andrews

This is a new release of one of the two books that have made Jack Andrews a household name in the blacksmithing community.(The other is the "New Edge of the Anvil.") While this book has been around for some time now the new release offers the title in a more affordable paperbound cover. Samuel Yellin is the king of the blacksmiths and a true inspiration to virtually anyone who has ever swung a hammer. at piece of hot steel. His accomplishments as a metal artist are thing to be grasped at and never achieved by the mere mortal. Andrews does and excellent job of capturing the spirit of this man who organized teams of immigrant blacksmiths into a shop in Philadelphia spread ironwork across the country. In this work you will learn the history that is the Yellin legacy, including the formative years before he was a household name. A time line gives important dates in his history. Of special interest are the historic photos of Yellin and those under his employ. Even better are the many pages of his work, each piece speaking volumes on its own. There are gates, railings, keys, locks, fireplace sets, lighting devices, whimsical creatures and more. Now that Andrews has brought this book back at less that ..., there are not excuses for not having it in your library. Just owning this book may make you a better blacksmith! Get one before the are all gone.

Jim McCarty

Jack Andrews and Skipjack Press have done us all a favor by republishing this book in paperback. Samuel Yellin's work remains an important subject of study, not only for blacksmiths, but for artists, architects, interior designers, and anyone who works with or enjoys ironwork. Jack Andrews worked in the Yellin shops at Arch Street and is deeply familiar with his subject, and his expertise shows throughout this book.

Of course, the many examples of Yellins work is enough reason to add this book to your library.. As usual, the scale of the works is sometimes immense, and requires the labor of fifty smiths to execute... but that's not what most people are after. The details shown in these works can give you a myriad of ideas to try in your own shop.

But there's more than that. Yellin's business practices are a lesson to us all, especially the way he documented all of his work. In a sense, this practice of Yellin's made books like this and the study of his work possible. He used job cards and took photographs of every piece of ironwork that went out the door. We should all document our work so well.

Yellin's thoughts on design and the artistic nature of forged iron make great reading as well. I keep going back to Yellin's discussion of "Craftsmanship" again and again, each time finding a new and interesting point to consider.

When you add all this with the fact that this reissue costs twenty dollars, you've got a real bargain. This book should be required reading for anyone with an interest in metals.

Samuel Yellin Metalworker was originally published in hard cover and has been out of print. I am pleased to see it released again in soft cover and at a reasonable price. This book is sort of a history of the Samuel Yellin organization and a tribute to the man's genius at creating beautiful ironwork. I especially like the quotes on the back cover of the book: "The true craftsman should know every branch of his craft and a piece of work can only be either good or bad. If one small part of the grille is bad, the whole grille is bad. For a piece of craftsmanship to be good not the smallest part should receive adverse criticism. And even though twelve men work on one pair of gates, they must appear when completes as though they were made by one man." That is requiring pretty exacting work from all of his help in his shop and is no wonder that he achieved such great stature as an Art Metal Worker. With this sort of attitude about the work from his shop, it is no wonder that this man achieve so much stature in only 55 years on earth. The beginning Chapter talks about Yellin's shop and business. The second chapter talks about and profusely illustrates the Yellin Wrought Iron. The next chapter presents Yellin's views on Craftsmanship being a reprint of a talk that he gave before the Architectural Club of Chicago on March 9, 1926. Interesting stuff. The next chapter is a group of Wrought Iron Selections that shows the great variety and wide range of the metal art that was created in the Yellin shop. This chapter alone is probably worth the price of the book because of its content of so many different types of objects. Through viewing such objects, one's mind becomes inspired and makes one able to do what Yellin says, "There is only one way to make good decorative ironwork and that is with the hammer at the anvil, for in the heat of creation and under the spell of the hammer, the whole conception of a composition is often transformed." I would say that this transformation takes place because of images that the ironworker has seen in the past, which tend to influence the way in which he or she sees the current project. By viewing many fine works, your mind can take on an appreciation of such work and help you to also produce similar works. Yellin urges the ironworker to "look to the past at fine works, but not to copy them." The final chapter talks about the Yellin Job Cards and shows a graph of jobs, job cards, and number of employees. It appears that Yellin's number of jobs peaked in 1923 and his number of employees peaked just before the stock market crashed about 1928. Everything sort of went down hill from there probably because of the great depression of the 1930s. Yellin died in 1940. An excellent book that every blacksmith and decorative metal worker should have in their library.

Reviewed by: Fred Holder, Editor Blacksmith's gazette

SANDRO BOTTICELLI'S DANTE'S DIVINE COMEDY IS NO MORE BETTER.
MERCI FOR THE AUTEUR-EDITION .

i heard of this drawings thru a brief documentary on Dante's Divine Comedy,and managed to track down a book about this subject, finally consulted Amazon to get it .Frankly when i saw the relatively modest price tag ,i did not imagine that in fact the book is not only a first class Art book worth( in an ideal world a bit less insane that the present one)much more than some 40 euros ,with a magisterially commented analysis ,and a magnificent one at that,for each of these trascendental drawings.Moreover the riproduction of the drawings is excellent,and the close examination of each of them with a magnifying lens can only leave a passionate of both Dante and of Great Painting simply speechless.Congratulations to authors,editors and everybody who made this available, from a humble old lover of Dante,of Painting and Music , those things that can stiil distinguish us from the "bestie', the "bruti" ,sincerely,guido zargani

This book brought Dante to life in a way for which I was unprepared. From the moment I saw Boticelli's depictions of the damned I was sure he must have had an "inside" look into what Dnate was writing about. A wonderful coffee-table book that will get your guests to talking.

This is an extraordinary book. It's like finding a rare and beautiful volume in an antiquarian bookstore. The book consists of almost a hundred drawings by Botticelli, made around 1500 to illustrate Dante's Divine Comedy of 1300.

The drawings are marvelous. The devils and monsters are rather tame by modern standards but the thousands of individual characters are beautifully drawn and are easily recognizable as Botticelli's work even to the untrained eye. Botticelli illustrates each canto like a modern day story board or sequence of drawings in a cartoon strip. The action follows all of the events described in each canto. I pored over the drawings every evening for a month. I used a recent translation of the Inferno as my guide to this section. Opposite each drawing is a short but comprehensive summary of the canto together with a description of the drawing. The summary was sufficient to carry me through the Purgatorio and Paradiso sections and the descriptions were extremely helpful and never pedantic.

The book is superbly produced with informative essays and excellent photographs of paintings by Botticelli to illustrate his style. Even the dust cover is well-made and robust. It is illustrated with a scene of Dante and Virgil crossing a bridge over a pit of burning souls (the evil counselors). The hard cover of the book is embossed with the flames from the same scene, making it a very attractive volume.

Most of the drawings, which were intended to be colored, are unfinished, but this adds to the interest since it's possible to see how the artist worked. In some, the drawings are so dense and complex that you might need a magnifying glass to see them. On each such occasion the producers of the book have provided an enlargement of the drawing on the following page, anticipating the reader's needs. A particularly fine example of the complex drawing is the illustration for canto X of the Purgatorio. The scene shows marble reliefs on the walls of the mountain terrace illustrating example of humility. There are three tableaux of such detail and intensity that each could represent a sketch for a fresco on the wall of a cathedral and yet the complete drawing is on a piece of sheepskin parchment measuring about 14 x 16 inches.

As a former museum photographer, I can speak to the fine reproductions in this volume. The complexity of reproducing drawings of such fine detail in print is quite difficult if not impossible. One would expect to find this quality at a much greater price. This volume is not only a master work of techical ability, but the history revealed in the essays is astounding. I actually could not put it down. As a painter working with the subject matter, it provided an invaluable resource.

This book is highly recommended for people (both new and old) interested in exploring one of the largest and fastest growing African Diasporic Religions (Lukumi/Santeria). Full of beautiful pictures of actual costumes, plazas and thrones. This book would also be of interest to students studying anthropology, comparative religion, ethnic art, etc. New or used, the price paid for this little piece of work is money well spent.

So many books on Santeria write about theology and rituals and forget about the visual beauty of the religion. This book captures the beauty of the visual arts Santeria. The authors have included many, many photographs of Thrones of the Orishas, that is, shrines decorated with colored cloths. If you want to learn about rituals or theolgy, this is not the book. But, if you want to see the colors and creativity of the folk art aspect of Santeria, then you will thouroughly enjoy it.

From the point of view of a new Olorisa, (initiated Priestess) Santeria Garments and Alters was like a breath of fresh air in an environment which usually does little to support Traditional religious practises. The photographs are honouring to our Orisas and beautifully done. The authors tell the story of the creation of the works of art designed to pay homage to the Orisas in a way in which both the aleyo (non-initiated) and the experienced Olorisa may understand. Santeria Garments and Alters is a "must-have" for anyone who must build alters or other sacred spaces as well as for those who seek to learn about the artistic nature of our rich spiritual Tradition. Iyawo Omi Saide

I think this is the only book dedicated to the materials used in the Thrones of the Orishas as well as the Traje De Galas, Beautiful pictures of panios, coronas, ceremonial vestments. Informative. This is a good book for the curious who would like to see what our sacred initiation garments, Shrines, and altar items look like. Smnall into to some of the Orisha as venerated in Santeria.

This is not traditional ceremonial clothing as used in Yorualand, but that of the Lucumi Ocha followers of the New World. And let me stress, that the garments and thrones, are an Art Form in themselves. Beautiful Pictures.

If you are interested in Santeria and the garments utilized in ceremonies, this is the book for you. You will not see these garments elsewhere. The author is a very well recognized santero and the pictures are stunning. The information presented is geared to a nonpractitioner of this tradition. Forget whatever you have heard about Santeria; this is the real thing.