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Art Books

Jessica Vaughn’s Depreciating Assets

Her first artist book examines the human toll of corporate design aesthetics.

Schnabel

Part of a series of limited-edition monographs of the work of living artists, the oversized monograph demands care and attention and effort on the part of the reader. The reproductions allow the viewer to become absorbed, and the artist’s oeuvre—which has always veered towards the grand—benefits well from this.

Elliott Erwitt’s Found Not Lost

Not only a visual showcase of overlooked images, this book further underscores how classifying, sifting, and intuiting what is essential from one’s own production is key to the artistic process, perhaps as much as the creative act itself. It shows how sidelined work can be reconsidered and even reframe a legacy, be it the way the artist regards the work, or the way viewers do.

On Scale

Three recent books on scale throw a sharp light on attempts at human-based measurements. Each book induces a humbling sense of the limitations of human efforts to understand themselves in relation to their environment, an incipient awareness that also suggests the possibility of imagining alternatives.

Carolee Schneemann’s Parts of a Body House Book

A new facsimile edition of the performance artist’s feverish exploration of bodily autonomy, sexuality, and creativity. Schneemann passed away in 2019 during the later stages of production. Thus the book is a relic, a temporary vessel for her oeuvre, a pulsing manifestation of something ultimately uncontainable.

Emma Amos: Color Odyssey

This catalogue, filled with contributions by women in the arts who knew the artist personally, provides a survey befitting the now-unmasked member of the anonymous feminist Guerrilla Girls. The book gathers a chorus of voices representing expertise in the diverse materials Amos used and loved, illustrating her role as a mentor, peer, and friend.

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The Brooklyn Rail

MAY 2021

All Issues