Even if you are not a totem pole fancier, it’s wonderful to see Hall and Glascock retrieve model totem poles from souvenirial obscurity. Besides showing numerous examples of great work, the book names the artists, tracks the evolution of the genre both artistically and socially, and identifies tribal and regional styles. And they don’t scoff at the souvenirs either, reflecting a sensibility forged by decades of engagement with regional, folk, self-taught and popular-craft art.
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Review: A Tale of Two Cities
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens My rating: 3 of 5 stars The opening and closing lines are immortal classics, and the book does has some great characters and set pieces. But it’s my least favorite Dickens, showing off his biggest flaws, especially overwrought language, rank sentimentality and coincidence so arbitrary as to be lazy. Plus, his characterization of the French Revolution is distinctly unhelpful. Indeed, it shows that this champion of the downtrodden was still absolutely terrified of poor people. View all my reviews
Continue readingReview: Illuminating Fashion: Dress in the Art of Medieval France and the Netherlands, 1325-1515
Illuminating Fashion: Dress in the Art of Medieval France and the Netherlands, 1325-1515 by Anne van Buren My rating: 5 of 5 stars I can’t say I could explain the difference between a houpeland and a cotehardie, but now I roughly know what they are. This culmination of a lfe’s work is a truly amazing book, tracing the evolution of late medieval high fashion over two centuries. Van Buren systematically analyzed the clothing In every image she could firmly date for her period. The illustrations are beautiful and the text’s illuminations bring a new dimension to pictures that might sometimes
Continue readingReview: American Ruins
American Ruins by Camilo José Vergara My rating: 5 of 5 stars Ruin porn with redeeming social value. Vergara doesn’t just exploit decayed and collapsing buildings for their sad beauty. He gets to know them, and sometimes their denizens and neighbors, complementing his lovely photos with engaging, and often depressing, stories. View all my reviews
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Review: Customers Included: How to Transform Products, Companies, and the World – With a Single Step
Customers Included: How to Transform Products, Companies, and the World – With a Single Step by Mark Hurst My rating: 5 of 5 stars An essential read if you care about the customer experience. This book is both an argument for attending seriously to customer experience and a how-to guide. The two authors have been enormously influential advocates and bring years of experience helping senior executives understand the supreme value of really understanding their customers. The book is a quick and engaging read that will pay off well. View all my reviews
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Book Review: Great and Mighty Things: Outsider Art
“Great and Mighty Things: Outsider Art from the Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz Collection,” Edited by Ann Percy with Cara Zimmerman; With contributions by Francesco Clemente, Lynne Cooke, Joanne Cubbs, Bernard L. Herman, Ann Percy, Colin Rhodes, and Cara Zimmerman, Yale University Press, 288 pages, 245 color illustrations and 1 b/w, 2013. ISBN 978-0-3001-9175-2. Hard cover $60 This is a blockbuster catalog for a blockbuster exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, yet like a parade of similar volumes it is built around samples of work by mostly well-known artists, each equipped with a one- to two-page biography, followed by essays
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Review: The Machine Stops
The Machine Stops by E.M. Forster My rating: 5 of 5 stars I read it long ago, but it’s been hugely influential on my thinking. Another case of a writer with uncanny prescience. View all my reviews
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Review: Rebecca
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier My rating: 4 of 5 stars Excessive self-consciousness meets over-the-top atmosphere, and atmosphere, much like the title character, prevails. The famous first words are “Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.” But the wisest lines might be these: “I wondered how many people there were in the world who suffered and continued to suffer, because they could not break out from their own web of shyness and reserve, and in their blindness and folly built up a great distorted wall in front of them that hid the truth.” View all my reviews
Continue readingReview: Building Stories
Building Stories by Chris Ware My rating: 5 of 5 stars For some perverse reason I actually find comics hard to read, and Chris Wares’ — brilliant though they be — are among the hardest. Building Stories, despite its complicated and aggressively creative packaging, is a wonderful read. It displays Ware’s depth and sensitivity, and the main characters are compelling enough to pull you through the books’ disparate pieces despite Ware’s trademark twists and turns. View all my reviews
Continue readingReview: Green Man: The Archetype of Our Oneness with the Earth
Green Man: The Archetype of Our Oneness with the Earth by William Anderson My rating: 4 of 5 stars You’ve probably seen him even if you haven’t noticed. This book explores the historical, artistic, architectural and spiritual history of this pre-Christian image that has stubbornly hung on with something akin to ubiquity. The “foliate head” turns up in even the most religious of settings, from Gothic cathedrals to the title pages of Martin Luther’s writings. The book can veer a little toward the New Agey at times, but that hazard seems inherent in the subject matter. The profuse photography easily
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