1 comments about Denby Pottery, 1809-1997: Dynasties and Designers.

1. If you collect Denby this book is a must. It features everything you want to know from the start of the company. Can't place a name on that 'odd piece of Denby'. This book will certainly help. Very interesting and informative.

No comments about A Pocket Guide to Flow Blue: With Prices (Schiffer Book for Collectors).

No comments about Gerhard Richter: Zufall.

3 comments about A Potter's Notes on Tai Chi Chuan.

1. Margaret Emerson begins "A Potter's Notes on Tai Chi Chuan" with questioning whether she should even attempt to write about Tai Chi Chuan, given that this art does not consist of knowledge that can "be learned in the Western sense." "It is better named awareness," she continues, something that "can only be gained through experience." And yet, through very simply, precisely, lucidly detailing the factual intersections in her own life between her practice of Tai Chi Chuan and her work as a potter, she succeeds in illuminating the nature, results, and rewards of long-term practice of Tai Chi Chuan-or really any art.
   
   I highly recommend this series of brief essays, vignettes, meditations, or prose poems-Emerson's writings transcend any one category-for insight, encouragement, and inspiration for both would-be and experienced practitioners of Tai Chi Chuan and those interested in the artistic process in general.
   
   --Stephanie Hoppe, instructor, Tai Chi Chuan, and author of "Sharp Spear, Crystal Mirror: Martial Arts in Women's Lives



2. Margy's books are like practical poetry,relating wonderful images to be manefested in form, whether it be pottery or the ancient exercise of Tai Chi Chuan. Reading her books promotes disapline, and a daily practice of centering, balance, and the roots of grace.
   
   She presents the basic principle of Tai Chi Chuan dance, juxtiposed to the very basic material world of working with clay. It is amazing how these two opposites have so much in common... form, space, flowing energy into matter and substance.
   An interplay of yin and yang.
   
   Sifu Emerson offers meditative aspects in the living of everyday life. Sweet, sensible, sesitive and strong. Anyone who wants to connect to their lives with better awareness, will get more out of everyday experiences, with a reading of A Potter's Notes on Tai Chi Chuan.



3. The gentle movements between the two art forms - potting and tai chi chuan practice - using a third art form, written prose, echo the gentle movements of practice as taught by Margy. Really, you should read this book if you're practicing t.c.c. It's NOT a how-to manual and does not pretend to be, but is more a meditation on the process and how it has affected one person. This and her second book give a glimpse into the non-mysterious world of practice.

No comments about Graffitecture: Chicago Graffiti Artists Attack Photographic Spaces.

No comments about Printed Images by Australian Artists 1885-1955.

No comments about Emily Jacir: Belongings.

5 comments about Antique Limoges at Home.

1. This would be the first book I would purchase if you are a beginner or
   long time collector of Limoges. It is excellent



2. Antique Limoges at Home is a great resource book with the marks & beautiful photos of unique pieces. Highly recommend this book. I have the book by Gaston & those by Waterbrook/Clyde and I can not recommend them. If you need a book on Limoges porcelain purchase one of DuBay's: Antique Limoges at Home, Living With Limoges & Collecting Hand Painted Limoges Porcelain.



3. I love Schiffer, but I prefer Keith and Thomas Waterbrook-Clyde books on Limoge! I think that their 4 books, and especially the most recently published, contains more insight into the world of limoge.



4. I own all three of Debby DuBay's books on Limoges along with all of the other reference books available on the market today. I have to admit - it is hard finding this book unless you purchase it on line - but it is well worth the effort. Out of all of the Limoges reference books this book Antique Limoges at Home is the absolutely best. It covers French factory listed artists, amature artists, American Decorating Studios, American listed artists, every back stamp and mark out there, reproductions and a complete section of American Limoges marks. Antique Limoges at Home is the best and a must for the Limoges collector.



5. Numerous color photographs of limoges' pieces or sets in different rooms of a home--foyer, livingroom, bedrooms, etc.--illustrate how this highly desirable porcelain can enhance any setting. Individual pieces and sets are highlighted in middle chapters on different types of limoges such as plates, ewers, platters, chalices, dresser sets, punch bowls, teapots, vases, and others. With these pieces with price ranges conveniently noted following brief descriptions, one can study the details of illustrations, design of the edges, ornamentation, shape, and coloring. There's a shorter section for limoges pieces "you can wear"--i. e., brooches, pins, buttons. Owner of the Limoges Antique Shop in Andover, MA, and author and contributor to other books on limoges who is also a retired Air Force officer, Debbie DuBay has long been a recognized leader in spreading the word about the special beauty, diversity, and value of limoges. This book is so attractive, a reader might miss the general information and reference material DuBay provides of use to collectors and investors at all levels. Opening chapters introduce beginning collectors to limoges porcelain, noting distinctions between French and American limoges and the matter of reproductions. The references on artists, markings, and evaluating a piece or set more of interest to advanced collectors and dealers comes toward the end. Here there are close-ups of the many artist signatures and factory marks signifying the finest limoges.

No comments about The Ceramic Forms of Leza McVey.

5 comments about Architecture and Hygiene.

1. If you are looking for a book from which to gleen ideas, this is not it. If you had written this book and handed it to a psychiatrist, he/she would ask if you had stopped taking your meds. I was grossly misled by the accompanying glorious reviews, thinking I was actually purchasing a useful architecture book. This is a book half filled with Adam Kalkin's work and half filled with the child-like scribblings, insane ramblings, and pornographic "art" of an obviously mentally ill person. Not genius, not deep or insightful, just insane. If you are a fan of Adam Kalkin's work as I am, but don't want the useless pages, you should buy PreFab Modern. It contains all of his important work with much larger and better photographs. Unless you are incredibly eccentric, this is a book you would literally be embarassed to show your friends and family. A waste of money.



2. "Semantic incontinence" is a term from the list of '100 Comments on Architecture and Hygiene' at the conclusion of this book by Adam Kalkin, and I feel that this two word turn of phrase encapsulates the narrative of this book as well as any other. The book is extremely difficult, no, impossible, to categorize. It is essentially a photographic primer on the stark, almost anarchist, ultra-modern architectural works of Kalkin. I am a great fan of contemporary and industrial architecture, but I have never seen it taken to this level before.

   Interspersed with the architectural forays are hand drawn, child-like sketches of concepts that are far beyond the boundaries of normal architecture books. In particular, the "Sphincter of Loneliness" on p. 94 caught my attention, as did the test on p. 59, which features such questions as these:

   Diaper is to Sari as:
   a) urbanism is to classicism
   b) rain is to fog
   c) fez is to spanking

   Who was the least well known:
   a) Plotinus
   b) Elvis
   c) The Nancy Drew Series

   Essay: Write twenty words or less on the following topic
   Clinton: Sage or Bedwetter?

   Clearly this is no ordinary architect. While some of his works are a bit too industrial even for my tastes, you will be hard pressed to find a more unusual, stimulating, weird, or fun book on contemporary architecture.

   It is simply mind boggling.




3. Wear shades! What you see in Adam Kalkin's hyperpolished mirror might scare you. Aphasic and perverse, Kalkin throws knife-edged arcs into the sky. This is what you get when geometry sleeps with poetry. Sniff the pictures and then eat the book to complete the synesthetic experience.



4. ...because you cannot imagine what is in it; I find it remarkable that anyone could. I bought this book mainly based on the cover picture, because I like looking at innovative design. I did not expect the combination of (1) delightful, radically imaginative, yet practical architecture / interior design with (2) insightfully sardonic Monty Pythonesque, Warren Zevonish humor. The blend, throughout, is liberating. There are many excellent photos as well as professional and kid-like drawings. You will feel admiration. You will laugh. You will want a house made of shipping containers. You will want to call the number that shoots the gun that misses the ...(buy book to find out what). The book includes plans and photos of the author's art exhibits. It will make you want to sit down with pencil and paper to design! Nothing could have prepared me to appreciate this book except all the crap I've been exposed to in the last 40 years that is supposed to be penetrating, funny, and original in art and building. It is what you really want on your coffee or bedside table. You'll feel badly if your dogs rip it up. It is not an imitation. It will damage that dead stuff that hangs out in your CNS.



5. A venal and combustible mix of troglodytic patois. Perfect bathroom reading; small, but raw enough to inflate your bowels with a new sense of self. You will laugh, sweat and vascillate between repulsion and enlightenment. A perfect gift for someone you might befriend.