Land and Environmental Art


Jeffrey Kastner - 1998
    Essential reading for both art enthusiasts and anyone concerned with the environment, the book is the most comprehensive and beautifully illustrated book on the subject.The traditional landscape genre was radically transformed in the 1960s when many artists stopped merely representing the land and made their mark directly in the environment. Drawn by the vast uncultivated spaces of the desert and mountain as well as post-industrial wastelands, artists such as Michael Heizer, Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson moved the earth to create colossal primal symbols. Others punctuated the horizon with man-made signposts, such as Christo's Running Fence or Walter de Maria's Lightning Field. Journeys became works of art for Richard Long while Dennis Oppenheim and Ana Mendieta immersed their bodies in the contours of the land.This book traces early developments to the present day, as artists are exploring eco-systems and the interface between industrial, urban and rural cultures. Survey Brian Wallis discusses the key artists, works and issues that define Land Art historically, as well as its later ramifications.Works This book fully documents the 1960s Land Art movement and surveys examples of Environmental Art to the present day. Earthworks, environments, performances and actions by artists ranging from Ana Mendieta in the 1970s and 80s to Peter Fend in the 1990s are illustrated with breathtaking photographs, sketches and project notes. Documents Jeffrey Kastner has compiled an invaluable archive of statements by all the featured artists alongside related texts by art historians, critics, philosophers and cultural theorists including Jean Baudrillard, Edmund Burke, Guy Debord, Michael Fried, Dave Hickey, Rosalind Krauss, Lucy R Lippard, Thomas McEvilley and Simon Schama.

Keith Haring


Elisabeth Sussman - 1987
    Combining the appeal of Disney cartoons with the sophisticated primitivism of such artists as Jean Dubuffet, these underground artworks were bold, humorous, accessible, subversive - and the work of one man - Keith Haring. Over the next decade, Haring went on to create a body of work that would capture the energy and excitement of New York's brash street culture - and transmute punk, new wave, hip-hop, graffiti and break dancing into an instantly recognizable pop iconography. He frequently bypassed the gallery scene, preferring to address people directly through drawings and paintings in public spaces and with mass-produced items based on his designs. By the time he died of AIDS in 1990 he had become New York's most celebrated artist since Andy Warhol.

Cindy Sherman: Retrospective


Cindy Sherman - 1997
    Her art embodies two developments in the art world: the impact of postmodern theory on art practice; and the rise of photography and mass-media techniques as modes of artistic expression.

The Devil's Playground


Nan Goldin - 2003
    Since the 1980s, Goldin has consistently created photographs that are intimate and compelling: they tell personal stories of relationships, friendships and identity, while chronicling different eras and exposing the passage of time.This book features a significant body of the latest work by Goldin, including photographs from new series such as Still on Earth (1997-2001), 57 Days (2000) and Elements (1995-2003), many of which are previously unpublished. Laid out in diary-like sequences by Goldin herself, the material is both courageously candid and affirmative. The photographs are grouped into themed chapters, between which are interspersed texts, poems and lyrics by prominent writers, including Nick Cave, Catherine Lampert, Cookie Mueller and Richard Price. The Devil's Playground is the first major book to be published on Goldin's work since 1996 and it is by far her most important to date.This monograph brings to light both the sources of Goldin's inspiration and her life as a prominent contemporary artist: she is internationally recognized as one of today's leading photographers. Born in Washington DC, Goldin grew up in Boston where she began taking photographs at the age of 15. She has since lived in New York, Bangkok, Berlin, Tokyo and Paris, amassing an extensive body of work that represents an often disconcertingly seductive photographic portrait of our time.

The Art of Looking Sideways


Alan Fletcher - 2001
    It is an inexhaustible mine of anecdotes, quotations, images, curious facts and useless information, oddities, serious science, jokes and memories, all concerned with the interplay between the verbal and the visual, and the limitless resources of the human mind. Loosely arranged in 72 chapters, all this material is presented in a wonderfully inventive series of pages that are themselves masterly demonstrations of the expressive use of type, space, color and imagery.This book does not set out to teach lessons, but it is full of wisdom and insight collected from all over the world. Describing himself as a visual jackdaw, master designer Alan Fletcher has distilled a lifetime of experience and reflection into a brilliantly witty and inimitable exploration of such subjects as perception, color, pattern, proportion, paradox, illusion, language, alphabets, words, letters, ideas, creativity, culture, style, aesthetics and value.The Art of Looking Sideways is the ultimate guide to visual awareness, a magical compilation that will entertain and inspire all those who enjoy the interplay between word and image, and who relish the odd and the unexpected.

Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers


Kwame Anthony Appiah - 2006
    Drawing on a broad range of disciplines, including history, literature, and philosophy—as well as the author's own experience of life on three continents—Cosmopolitanism is a moral manifesto for a planet we share with more than six billion strangers.

Free Culture: The Nature and Future of Creativity


Lawrence Lessig - 2004
    Never before have the cultural powers- that-be been able to exert such control over what we can and can't do with the culture around us. Our society defends free markets and free speech; why then does it permit such top-down control? To lose our long tradition of free culture, Lawrence Lessig shows us, is to lose our freedom to create, our freedom to build, and, ultimately, our freedom to imagine.

Typographie =: Typography


Emil Ruder - 1981
    Ruder, one of the great twentieth-century typographers was a pioneer who abandoned the conventional rules of his discipline and replaced them with new rules that satisfied the requirements of his new typography. Now in its sixth printing, this book has a hallowed place on the bookshelves of both students and accomplished designers. Dimension: 83/4 x 11 inches, over 500 examples, English, German & French text.

Language and the Pursuit of Happiness: A New Foundation for Designing Your Life, Your Relationships & Your Results


Chalmers Brothers - 2004
    This is especially relevant for anyone seeking to break free from repetitive and ineffective patterns, actions and outcomes. It?s immediately valuable for everyone for whom building and maintaining mutually-beneficial relationships is important. And it?s particularly useful for leaders, managers, administrators and anyone else who "gets paid to have effective conversations!" In this book, the author leads you on an eye-opening exploration of yourself, your language, your conversations and their connections to your physical and emotional well-being. He introduces you to an emerging and thought-provoking way of thinking, one with very old and very new roots. You will see clearly that our collective common-sense understanding of language as merely a "tool for communicating" or "a way we describe how things are" is only a small and limited part of the full story. Having nothing at all to do with grammar, sentence structure or nouns and verbs, this book instead takes you on a journey through the many ways in which your internal and external conversations ? fully inter-twined and braided together wi

The Wabi-Sabi House: The Japanese Art of Imperfect Beauty


Robyn Griggs Lawrence - 2004
    Together, the phrase invites us to set aside our pursuit of perfection and learn to appreciate the simple, unaffected beauty of things as they are. Wabi-sabi can be found in the deep cracks of a weathering pine table. It is flea markets, wildflowers, and cobblestones. Intimately tied to Zen Buddhism, wabi-sabi is an aesthetic that welcomes comfort and a subtle spiritual component into the home. It is not a decorating style, per se, but a mind-set. To create a true wabi-sabi environment, one must slowly strip away excess and learn to be satisfied living in the moment. The Wabi-Sabi House recounts the rich history of this emerging trend in home design and reveals countless ways to introduce wabi-sabi elements into contemporary living spaces, including tips for gracefully decorating with salvaged materials and vintage furnishings, advice on how to rediscover the lost joy of hand-crafting household items (or supporting artisans who do), and simple solutions for clearing clutter and blocking noise (even with a spouse, kids, and no closet space). But The Wabi-Sabi House is so much more than a handbook for interior design. With heart and a sense of humor, author Robyn Griggs Lawrence gently reminds us that there is a life in lifestyle books, and she encourages people from all walks of life to slow down and recognize beauty in what may seem ordinary. Intimate, authoritative, and truly inspirational, "The Wabi-Sabi House" lays the foundation for transforming any home into a nurturing retreat from a hectic world.

The Ascent of Everest


John Hunt - 1953
    Expedition leader John Hunt's account of the first ascent of Mount Everest's summit in 1953 by Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay.

The Intellectual Devotional Modern Culture: Revive Your Mind, Complete Your Education, and Converse Confidently with the Culturati


David S. Kidder - 2007
    In The Intellectual Devotional: Modern Culture, authors David S. Kidder and Noah D. Oppenheim explore the fascinating world of contemporary culture to offer 365 daily readings that provide the essential references needed to navigate the world today.Quench your intellectual thirst with an overview of the literature, music, film, personalities, trends, sports, and pop references that have defined the way we live. From the Slinky to Star Wars; Beatlemania to Babe Ruth; flappers to fascism—refreshing your memory and dazzling your friends has never been easier, or more fun. Whether you're a trivia genius, pop-culture buff, or avid reader, you'll be riveted by this comprehensive journey through contemporary culture.

Why We Need Love


Simon Van Booy - 2010
    In Why We Need Love, Simon Van Booy curates an enlightening collection of excerpts, passages, and paintings, presenting works by Geoffrey Chaucer, William Shakespeare, John Donne, William Blake, George Eliot, Emily Dickinson, O. Henry, W. B. Yeats, James Joyce, E. E. Cummings, Anaïs Nin, Marc Chagall, J. Krishnamurti, and others.Provocative and eye-opening, Why We Need Love is one of three slim selections of philosophical texts and excerpts—along with Why We Fight and Why Our Decisions Don’t Matter—introduced and contextualized by acclaimed author Simon Van Booy (Love Begins in Winter, The Secret Lives of People in Love).

Every Day in Tuscany: Seasons of an Italian Life


Frances Mayes - 1998
    Frances Mayes offers her readers a deeply personal memoir of her present-day life in Tuscany, encompassing both the changes she has experienced since Under the Tuscan Sun and Bella Tuscany appeared, and sensuous, evocative reflections on the timeless beauty and vivid pleasures of Italian life. Among the themes Mayes explores are how her experience of Tuscany dramatically expanded when she renovated and became a part-time resident of a 13th century house with a stone roofin the mountains above Cortona, how life in the mountains introduced her to a "wilder" side of Tuscany--and with it a lively engagement with Tuscany's mountain people. Throughout, she reveals the concrete joys of life in her adopted hill town, with particular attention tolife in the piazza, the art of Luca Signorelli (Renaissance painter from Cortona), and the pastoral pleasures of feasting from her garden.Moving always toward a deeper engagement, Mayes writes of Tuscan icons thathave become for her storehouses of memory, of crucible moments from which bigger ideas emerged, andof the writing life she has enjoyed in the room where Under the Tuscan Sun began. With more on the pleasures of life at Bramasole, the delights and challenges of living in Italy day-to-day and favorite recipes, Every Day in Tuscany is a passionate and inviting account of the richness and complexity of Italian life."

Béla Tarr, the Time After


Jacques Rancière - 2011
    The “time after” is not the uniform and morose time of those who no longer believe in anything. It is the time when we are less interested in histories and their successes or failures than we are in the delicate fabric of time from which they are carved. It is the time of pure material events against which belief will be measured for as long as life will sustain it.