“Oliver Sacks, Richard Selzer, Lewis Thomas . . . Weissmann is in this noble tradition.”—Los Angeles Times

“Weissmann introduces us to a new way of thinking about the connections between art and medicine.”—The New York Times Book Review

Embryonic stem cell research. Evolution versus intelligent design. The transformation of medicine into “healthcare.” Climate change. Never before has science been so intertwined with politics; never have we been more dependent on scientific solutions for the preservation of the species. As at home with Galileo and his daughter in Florence as he is with Diderot in Enlightenment France, William and Alice James in fin-de-siècle Boston, or the latest research on the genome, Gerald Weissmann distills the lessons of history to guide us through our troubled age. His message is clear: “Experimental science is our defense—perhaps our best defense—against humbug and the Endarkenment.”

These reflections on the historical roots of the current culture wars in science and medicine again reveal Weissmann to be “by any standard, one of the major essayists of our time” (Eric Kandel, winner of the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 2000).

Gerald Weissmann, MD, is a research professor of medicine, editor in chief of The FASEB Journal, and director of the Biotechnology Study Center at New York University School of Medicine. His essays and reviews have appeared in numerous publications worldwide, including the London Review of Books and The New York Times Book Review. He is the author, most recently, of The Year of the Genome (2002). He lives in New York City and Woods Hole, Massachusetts.

What John C. Welchman calls the "blazing network of focused conflations" from which Mike Kelley's styles are generated is on display in all its diversity in this second volume of the artist's writings. The first volume, Foul Perfection, contained thematic essays and writings about other artists; this collection concentrates on Kelley's own work, ranging from texts in "voices" that grew out of scripts for performance pieces to expository critical and autobiographical writings.Minor Histories organizes Kelley's writings into five sections. "Statements" consists of twenty pieces produced between 1984 and 2002 (most of which were written to accompany exhibitions), including "Ajax," which draws on Homer, Colgate- Palmolive, and Longinus to present its eponymous hero; "Some Aesthetic High Points," an exercise in autobiography that counters the standard artist bio included in catalogs and press releases; and a sequence of "creative writings" that use mass cultural tropes in concert with high art mannerisms—approximating in prose the visual styles that characterize Kelley's artwork. "Video Statements and Proposals" are introductions to videos made by Kelley and other artists, including Paul McCarthy and Bob Flanagan and Sheree Rose. "Image-Texts" offers writings that accompany or are part of artworks and installations. This section includes "A Stopgap Measure," Kelley's zestful millennial essay in social satire, and "Meet John Doe," a collage of appropriated texts. "Architecture" features an discussion of Kelley's Educational Complex (1995) and an interview in which he reflects on the role of architecture in his work. Finally, "Ufology" considers the aesthetics and sexuality of space as manifested by UFO sightings and abduction scenarios.

The Photography Reader is a comprehensive introduction to theories of photography; its production; and its uses and effects. Including articles by photographers from Edward Weston to Jo Spence, as well as key thinkers like Roland Barthes, Victor Burgin and Susan Sontag, the essays trace the development of ideas about photography. Each themed section features an editor's introduction setting ideas and debates in their historical and theoretical context.

Sections include: Reflections on Photography; Photographic Seeing; Coding and Rhetoric; Photography and the Postmodern; Photo-digital; Documentary and Photojournalism; The Photographic Gaze; Image and Identity; Institutions and Contexts.

A unique compendium of anthropomorphic personifications of death from historical to present day phenomenon including traditional and non-traditional death encounters told in the words of those who have experienced this growing phenomenon.

Pronged ants, horned humans, a landscape carved on a fruit pit—some of the displays in David Wilson's Museum of Jurassic Technology are hoaxes. But which ones? As he guides readers through an intellectual hall of mirrors, Lawrence Weschler revisits the 16th-century "wonder cabinets" that were the first museums and compels readers to examine the imaginative origins of both art and science. Illustrations.

What is the role of the museum in contemporary society? Using the Oakland Museum of California as a case study, artist Mark Dion examines how museum practices have shifted over time, what these changes mean for objects in museum collections, and what we can learn about our culture from what's included and what's abandoned. Enclosed in a clamshell case and featuring fourteen specimen cards, this deluxe volume brings the reader into Dion's process and reveals how the order of images can change one's perception of objects. Contributions from celebrated writers, including Lawrence Weschler and D. Graham Burnett, articulate Dion's unique power of examination.

A far more civilized, beautiful life now lies within the grasp of your trembling fingertips

Gentle reader: do you tire of the meager offerings set forth by our humdrum age? Do you seek to cultivate blooms of refinement and joy in your life's garden? Lord Whimsy, as befitting his office as "Affected Provincial", humbly offers himself as a guide to those who wish to transcend the banalities of modern existence. A diverse and hilarious collection of treatises, insightful essays, philosophical diagrams, saucy poetry and other amusing trifles, The Affected Provincial's Companion will inspire you to transform yourself into a living work of art, thus setting you upon a course towards that misty, faraway shore known to the ancients as Enchantment.

The perils of sportswear, self-defense for sissies, the proper grooming of facial hair, and how to become a bon vivant—all this and much more may be found between the shimmering covers of this sleek and utterly beguiling volume.

Who first introduced Manolo Blahnik to Americans: Vogue, or a canny buyer at Bendel’s? Where under one roof can shoppers find Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, Prada, and Hermès? Here are the great retail palaces—from Harrods to Barneys to Galeries Lafayette—where shoppers spend their day in opulent settings, drifting from cosmetics to shoes, stopping for lunch, the hairdresser, and endless temptations along the way. With photographs and ephemera from all over the world, this lavish book goes beyond in-store extravaganzas to the history of these consumer institutions, the personalities behind them, their vast range of goods, unique architecture, advertising, and associated sociological trends. With perfumed air and chandeliers, department stores have lured millions for over a century with that enticing, dizzying sense that no matter how much you already have, there is always more.

Praise for The World of Department Stores:

“Since my visits as a child to La Opera Department Store in Santo Domingo, I have believed that the best department stores are merchants not of clothing or shoes or cosmetics but of dreams. Whitaker’s book is a remarkable around-the-world look at these dream factories. It is an invaluable resource to anyone interested in the business of retailing and to shoppers everywhere.”—Oscar de la Renta

“The World of Department Stores is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the foundations of the urban experience in the West and the department store as the ultimate expression of the needs of the rising middle class and its tastes.” ­—Leonard Lauder, Chairman Emeritus, The Estée Lauder Companies Inc.

 

“I have nothing but good memories about the many department stores that played an important part in my business, [and] I warmly welcome the publication of this wonderful and unique book on department stores throughout the world.” —Hubert de Givenchy

"The birth of the department store in the late 19th century brought everything glamorous together under one roof—from inviting, intelligent architecture and design to the latest fashions. Jan Whitaker's The World of Department Stores looks back to the biggest and brightest shops—

including the belle epoque splendor of Paris's Bon Marché, the block-long, palatial GUM in Moscow; and the always outrageous holiday windows at Barneys New York." –Elle Décor

"In photos and art, this visual feast details the extraordinary history of the world's "great retail palaces" from the past century. With authoritative and informative text." -Sacramento Bee

"Illustrated with photos of window displays, catalog covers and the Gilded Age architecture of institutions from Philadelphia’s long-gone Wanamaker’s to Paris’s still-strong La Samaritaine, The World of Department Stores makes a worthwhile gift for the history, sociology or shopping buff on your list. " -Washington Post

Come join an in depth exploration of a unique segment of the Victorian decorative arts. In 650 beautiful images and fascinating text, many glass domes and the objects displayed under them are revealed and discussed in detail. Items from glorious taxidermy presentations of nature, seashell works, wax flowers and fruit, and even art formed of human hair are studied carefully. Additional chapters include examples of skeleton leaves and phantom bouquets; wool work; glass whimsies; seed, paper, muslin, and silk work; automata mechanical, musical masterworks and much more. Social commentary of the times enriches the exploration of these beautiful art objects. Experience the lightheartedness and whimsy to be found in the decorative arts created from 1837 to 1901 and preserved under these domes.

Fern Fever (or Pteridomania, to give it its official name), hit Britain between 1837 and 1914 and peaked between 1840 and 1890. Although in previous centuries ferns played an important role in customs and folklore, it was only in this period that they were coveted for aesthetic reasons and that man's passion for them reached its zenith.

The craze for collecting ferns reached such epidemic proportions that it affected the very existence of some species. The fern craze started to gather momentum in the 1840s; books and magazines maintained that fern growing was a hobby that anyone could enjoy as ferns would grow in the glazed fernery, garden, shady yard, window box or even indoors in Wardian Cases. The mania also spread from the living plant to depicting it in architecture and the decorative arts. Even roads, villas and terraced houses were named after the fern.

This book, the first to deal exclusively with the subject for nearly forty years, looks at the how the craze developed, the ways in which ferns were incorporated into garden and home, and the spread of the fern through Victorian material and visual culture.