Everything That Rises : A Book of Convergences
Lawrence Weschler
McSweeney's, 2006
This is a book full of nimble writing that never fails to stimulate the synapses. Weschler makes extraordinary leaps of insight between disparate images and historical moments, be it between Rembrandt and Che Guevara and a mass grave outside of Srebrenica. Passionate, personal and always surprising, you can read these bite-sized essays and come away buzzing with wonder. [AHL]
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Las Vegas Studio: Images from the Archive of Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown
Hilar Stadler & Martino Stierli, editors
Verlag Scheidegger and Spiess, 2009
A collection of images from slides, photos, and films from the original field research of 1966-1968 that would form the visual core of Venturi, Brown, and Izenour's seminal analysis, Learning from Las Vegas (1972). Like the sun-bleached image of its cover, this book captures a fugitive moment in American culture with images that parallel and in some cases presage the deadpan aesthetic of artists such as Ed Ruscha and Dan Graham or the subjects of the new color photography as practiced by artists such as Stephen Shore. [AB]
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Extraordinary Exhibitions
Ricky Jay
Quantuck Lane, 2005
Magician, actor, curator and wondrously quirky cultural presence, Ricky Jay is also a serious ephemera collector and a passionate social historian. Here, he shares selections from his magnificent collection of circus broadsides, advertising everything from an armless dulcimer player to a chess-playing automaton to an equestrian bee keeper. Brilliant. [JH]
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