Jamie Berger

My favorite image in this book is called Venice 2 by Tom Leighton of the UK. It shows St. Mark's Square with a carousel in the middle of the plaza and famous buildings such as Notre Dame ringing the plaza. I love the juxtaposition and "wrongness" of the image even though it looks wonderful and perfect and as though it cannot possibly be wrong. Everything fits and it seems normal. There are tons of other images, as well as pieces of images, that I really REALLY like. Losing T.E.M.P.E.R.(detail, pg.34) satisfies that urge for gears that seems to manifest itself periodically in me. Dreamboat(pg.166) has really great waves. The curves are so symmetrical and perfect. I also like America the Beautiful(pg.169), a woodblock print that shows the topography of the United States in a cartoon kind of style. It makes the cities seem unimportant, which is a relief since they seem to dominate everything.

The last book I reviewed in this series was PUSH Jewelry. I still love this series, especially the edginess of the art that is included and the joy that is no patterns!

You'd think that all of the pieces in this book would be digitally manipulated, but there are pieces described as "woodblock, linoleum cut, hand-typeset lead and wood typography," so something for everyone!

The types of images range from drawings to photographic imagery. Images are sparse and very complicated. There are dense drawings as well as lithographs, monoprints and silkscreens. The 30 (again!) artists in this book really push the boundaries of printmaking.

Yes, there are some images that I don't like at all. They just aren't my style, but I can see the line weight and the shading in them and appreciate those aspects.

There are brief bios at the back of the book either of the artists or their studio. The bios provide links to websites and information on whether the artist teaches, sells works or can be hired for other services. Artists come from all over the world and it makes me think of the differences in styles between countries and whether a similar book of artists from all one country would have the variety?

This book is full of more inspiration for you.

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