2 comments about Miller's: Staffordshire Figures: A Collector's Guide (Miller's Collector's Guides).

1. I just purchased and read the book "Staffordshire Figures of the 19th and 20th Centuries". I chose this book because, compared to the other Staffordshire books, this one is affordable at [money amount]. Any concerns I had about quality were dispelled when I received the book. It is a richly illustrated visual guide. The images, though smallish (1.5 in. horiz. x 2.5 in. vertically) are clear and colorful. The commentary is nicely chunked for easy comprehension, and the prose is enjoyable. A small 'fact-file' section on each recto page introduces useful tips and tidbits for collectors. Buy this one first. You'll be pleased.



2. As an amature collector of Staffordshire Figures, I was looking for an inexpensive book to help with my collecting. In the City where I live, one can rarely find Staffordshire figures for sale. I started collecting on ebay and through that site I ran across Miller's book that Kit Harding and A. & N. Harding, who listed Staffordshire figures, consulted in writing. I cannot say enough good things about this book for the novice such as myself. It was a great quick reference book. The descriptions of the figures and excellent color photos helped me with the basic knowledge of the figures. This book listed prices and what factors to look for in distinguishing the authentic from fake. I highly recommend this book for any serious collector.

No comments about Spode's Willow Pattern: And Other Designs After The Chinese.

No comments about Daniel Buren: Eye Of The Storm.

5 comments about The Century of Artists' Books.

1. It is rare enough for art books to be commented on, but to have the opportunity to read commentary on art book making and writing by a poet and old hat at art book typesetting, binding, etc is a great joy. A reference to cherish, and part of a necessary set of works by a fine author who is still underacknowledged for all she is bringing to contemporary book arts today.



2. If you are a serious artist or student of art, this book is almost a complete waste of time. Drucker's flowery writing is pretentious and difficult to follow, and in the end she has little to say. She also needs a new editor; There is a typo on the first page! (I believe it's "and and", but I don't have it in front of me) I also find it frustrating that she has no typographic sense. I took an undergraduate class about artists' books which featured her book. Several design students joked in the back of the class that they shouldn't have to read the book on that basis alone. (These are undergraduate students, not people who are writing books about the art and design of BOOKS.)



3. This book is an incredible resource to artists creating bookworks or any form of artist's books. Numerous professors in Columbia College's Book & Paper Arts MFA program use excerpts for readings and they always add insight and information to the recipients. Additionally, the readings (chapters) are not so complex as to not be able to absorb the information.

   It is outrageous that the [$$$] book is being sold for [$$$] here, just because it's out of print. Book artists are not bankers!




4. A landmark book. Does double duty as a showcase of some of the most incredible books of the century and puts forth some much needed critical groundwork. Johanna Drucker has done the world of book arts a huge service by initiating discussions about the definitions and categories that are necessary to formulate a critical language for this art.

   The theory parts are not heavy-handed, but spring naturally from the way she has decided to structure the material for presentation. Not many books are a reference, an inspiration, a sweeping survey, a seed for further criticism, and a flower of criticism in their own right. This one is all that and more.

   Your expectations of this book might be quite high if you've been wishing in vain for something like it. Even so, you will not be disappointed, because there is nothing else like it.

   When I finished it, I flipped back through the pages once, pressed the covers gently together and whispered to the book, "Well done, Johanna, well done, indeed."




5. A landmark book. Does double duty as a showcase of some of the most incredible books of the century and puts forth some much needed critical groundwork. Johanna Drucker has done the world of book arts a huge service by initiating discussions about the definitions and categories that are necessary to formulate a critical language for this art.

   The theory parts are not heavy-handed, but spring naturally from the way she has decided to structure the material for presentation. Not many books are a reference, an inspiration, a sweeping survey, a seed for further criticism, and a flower of criticism in their own right. This one is all that and more.

   Your expectations of this book might be quite high if you've been wishing in vain for something like it. Even so, you will not be disappointed, because there is nothing else like it.

   When I finished it, I flipped back through the pages once, pressed the covers gently together and whispered to the book, "Well done, Johanna, well done, indeed."

No comments about The Late Mannerists in Athenian Vase-Painting (Oxford Monographs on Classical Archaeology).

2 comments about Bachelors (October Books).

1. Rosalind Krauss' theories have some merits, and if you are looking at a book that will drive you up the wall the entire time shouting at it-- read this. I would never allow my grad students to read this dribble.



2. I haven't read all of the essays in this book. I might not want to. I think I've read five of the eight and parts of two others. Overall, I have not been particularly impressed. My introduction to Krauss came in an essay she authored on James Coleman, which I read for a class in college. It was particularly sophisticated: employing ideas from Barthes and Benjamin, she touched on ideas about obsolesence and signifiers that fail to signify, and in doing so brought a fresh perspective to an artist I never understood. In short, Krauss took difficult art and made sense of it. Unfortunately, in this book, Krauss takes on the foundation of the feminist canon but refuses to do feminist readings of their work. In fact, she attempts to perform an overhaul not just of critical appreciation of Cindy Sherman, Sherrie Levine, Claude Cahun, etc., but attempts to dismantle feminist theory altogether. In the very weak essay on Cindy Sherman, Krauss overlooks obvious feminist elements of Sherman's imagery (how they mimic the form of the pornographic centerfold, for example) with some talk about the "fetishization of the vertical" and the "sublimation of the subject into the horizontal." Worse, she tries to undo Laura Mulvey's seminal essay on film theory by pointing out a few assumption's Mulvey makes. Krauss never fesses up to her own assumptions. It's not persuasive art criticism.

   Basically, Krauss's method is always to locate in the art some formal element which can then be tied to a critical theoretical term. Thus, the horizontal is a rejection of "the fetishization of the vertical"; Sherrie Levine putting single objects in glass cases is an enactment of Deleuze's "machine". Krauss reveals how artists thematize critical theory rather than perform critical readings of the work. Thus, important artists for her are those who anticipate theoretical developments. Frankly, I think Krauss is attributing meaning to formal elements which do not inhere to the element itself. And how many times can an art critic point to multiplicity and a destabilizing of identity as "avante-garde" and subversive?

No comments about Re Views: Artists And Public Space.

No comments about Seto and Mino Ceramics (Japanese Collections in the Freer Gallery of Art).

No comments about Homer Laughlin China: 1940S & 1950s (Schiffer Book for Collectors).

No comments about Majolica: American & European Wares.