Review From Max (Yu SUN)

I am going to divide my review into two sections, the first half is about the book "Lost in learning: The art of discovery", and the second part is about the artist books.

From the pictures hanging on the wall which was selected from the book, I realized the greatest artists loved to use small tiny details as their unique signature, or things that were not belong to the artworks. These information has been hidden skillfully. I am not sure if this related to some modern books and movies like "Da Vinci Code" or "Angels and Demons", but I do believe the artists who made these wonderful artworks were trying to show something to a particular cluster of people who would love to discovery the secrets behind.

For the rest pieces of artist books shown on the desks, I have to say they really inspired me from some degree. They are books but not that flat, and they give us a real 3-D world to touch and feel. I would love to share my favorite ones.

1 "10 Books of Value" by Marcia Ciro.I have a feel that this is a 3D, daily life encyclopedia, the artist putting daily objects inside of the small units, and then bind them as a "book". When I was watching the units one by one, I can receive the information that the artist said "These are the things you are going to see everyday, but you may not notice them". Well, that is true.
2 "The Fabric Roll?" (I think there was not a label beneath this piece of artwork)
I think the symbols one the fabric pieces look like some kind of cuneiform, which I think should only be on the wall or stones of a primeval cave or bamboo rolls. For this artwork, some of the characters were printed and others were embroidered, I don't know if this means something like the old way and the modern way of produce clothes. It also remind me that in Southwestern China, especially in the mountain area, there is a traditional way of make beautiful fabric products called "Batik Dyeing", people use was to draw on the fabric, and the place where the wax on does not dye.3 "First Aid for Artists" by Kristen Hoops
I love this one because it is really creative. I pictured one page of the book which is the four different combination of ideas and action. The author made a foldable categories with contents right inside the label, it jumped out of the tradition form of introducing something.4 "Sand Battle I & II , Silent Sounds" by Laurie Alpert
First, I love the illustration very very much, the artist use simplified lines and symbols to address the theme. Also they are all mixed media books, when I was standing close to the artwork and touching, different materials give out different meaning, like the music score and the battle area.