It was lovely to see some of the feminist booksellers and publishers in New York City in May attending Book Expo America and the Lambda Literary Awards. It was also a delight to do slide shows and book signings at Mama Bears in Oakland, California, Mother Kali's in Eugene, Oregon, and In Other Words in Portland, Oregon. For me, there is still nothing that equals the unique and affirming experience of being in a women's bookstore. 

Dazzling Water, Dazzling Light: Pat Steir Paintings by John Yau presents the elegant, seemingly effortless splashes and drips of paint on canvas of a contemporary artist (b. 1940) who has exhibited widely in the U.S. and Europe. Seattle: U. of Washington Press (for Pamela Auchincloss, Arts Management), 2001, 80 pp., $22.50 paperback, ISBN 0-295-98029-X.

Catherine Opie: Skyways & Icehouses is a book whose title finely matches its contents. Opie (b. 1961) became known for photographing women (standing and peeing out-of-doors, tattooed, pierced, bearded) and scarier pictures featured in Nothing But The Girl: The Blatant Lesbian Image (Cassell, 1996). Her s/m-based self-portraits have been included in shows at the Whitney Museum and U.C. Berkeley Museum. Now she presents photographs of city streets sans people, almost devoid of cars; and snowy landscapes with small, painted buildings and strips of leafless trees. Text is made up of stories (unrelated to the pictures or to each other) about skyways and buildings and about icefishing. Minneapolis: Walker Art Center, 2002, 56 pp., $29.95, ISBN 0-935640-72-X. Dist. by D.A.P.: Distributed Art Publishers.

Art/Women/California 1950-2000: Parallels and Intersections, ed. by Diana Burgess Fuller and Daniela Salvioni, does such a good job of presenting a feminist-inflected art history that it should win an award. Feminism was, for me, about inclusivity, about seeing a broader picture, looking a material from different and new perspectives. Art/Women/California does just that. For instance, the section titled "Parallels," subtitled "Reconsidering the Terrain: Five Historical Perspectives"--one of the two major divisions in the book--includes essays which "examine how women artists from the five major ethnic communities in California--African American, Asian American, Chicana/Latina, European American, and Native American--in parallel fashion are historically influenced by their separate experiences within the California context, and how they in turn have left their distinct mark upon it." I would have liked more about how lesbian artists who belong to these ethnic communities interact with those communities and the larger histories, but am pleased that some lesbian art issues are included in the text. Berkeley: U. of Calif. Press, 2002, 380 pp., $35.00 (£24.95) paperback, ISBN 0-520-23066-3; $65.00 (£45) hardbound, ISBN 0-520-23065-5.

Ruth Harriet Louise and Hollywood Glamour Photography by Robert Dance and Bruce Robertson is a social history of photography in Hollywood in the 1920s, viewed through the study of work by Ruth Harriet Louise (born Ruth Goldstein, 1903-1940), who worked for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as chief portrait photographer from 1925-1929. It is a cool history, containing a great deal of information, but not a lot of personal detail. Example: we learn, almost as an aside, that Louise married, but are told nothing of the courtship, the quality of the relationship, or its effect on her career. Still, the pictures are lovely and the story of marketing of stars is fascinating. Berkeley: The U. of California Press, 2002, 225 pp., $35.00 (£24.95) paperback, ISBN 0-520-23348-4; $65.00 (£45.00) cloth, ISBN 0-520-23347-6.

Mary Colter: Architect of the Southwest by Arnold Berke deals with the career of Colter (1869-1958) who designed railroad stations and hotels known for their use of indigenous architecture and local building consistent with their Southwestern U.S. locations. Often, she used the work of area artists, especially Native Americans, for decoration. This volume is strongest on her professional accomplishments; to read it, one would not imagine she had a private life. Wonderful photographs! New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2002, 319 pp., $35, ISBN 1-56898-295-X, dist. by Chronicle Books.

Women Designers in the USA, 1900-2000: Diversity and Difference, ed. by Pat Kirkham. This is a fabulous collection, the kind that inspires as well as informs. Beautiful work is elegantly presented in chapters on women designing textiles, quilts, jewelry, metalwork, and ceramics. Industrial, interior, landscape, and graphic designers are included, as are those active in the Arts and Crafts movement, Native and African American designers, and more. New Haven: Yale, 2001, 462 pp., $39.95, ISBN 0-300-09331-4, paperback.

Reload: Rethinking Women + Cyberculture, ed. by Mary Flanagan and Austin Booth, is divided into three parts: "Women Using Technology," "The Visual/Visible/Virtual Subject," and "Bodies" with entries further identified as criticism or fiction. The editors stated purpose was to bring "together women's fictional representations of cyberculture with feminist theoretical and critical investigations of gender and technoculture." Some titles in Section Two include "Virtually Visible: Female Cyberbodies and the Medical Imagination" and "After/Images of Identity: Gender, Technology, and Identity Politics." For those who care about subtle differences, note that this is the kind of book that has an index heading for Queer Theory, but not for lesbian, although the term appears in the text. Cambridge, MA, The MIT Press, 2002, 581 pp., $29.95 paperback, ISBN 0-262-56150-6.

Baroness Elsa: Gender, Dada, and Everyday Modernity, a Cultural Biography by Irene Gammel details the life of the poet, muse, and early performance artist Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven (1874-1927). She was featured on the pages of The Little Review during the time when the magazine was also serializing (and being censored for publishing) James Joyce's Ulysses. Baroness Elsa's sexually provocative poems drew more letters to the editor than Joyce's erotic writing. Elsa was outrageous in her self-presentation and erotically aggressive in her actions. Called "mad" by many, she was defended by Review editor Jane Heap who wrote "Madness is her chosen state of consciousness. It is this consciousness she works to produce art." Includes interesting photos of Heap, artist Thelma Wood, and others. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2002, 534 pp., $39.95, ISBN 0-262-072319.

Nell Blaine: The Abstract Work, text by Nell Blaine and Stephen Westfall gives a brief glimpse of the early paintings of Blaine (1922-1996) who was born in Virginia and moved to New York City to study with Hans Hoffmann in 1942. She remained in the New York area for the rest of her life. The abstracts are bouyant and, at times, almost funny. New York: Tibor de Nagy Gallery, 2002, 36 pp., $10.00 (includes postage), no ISBN. Order from Tibor de Nagy Gallery, 724 Fifth Ave, NYC 10019., tibor@frontiernet.net.

Though not new, you might also be interested in the large-scale biographical study Nell Blaine: Her Art and Life by Martica Sawin, a lusciously produced volume with colorful, delightful images. Blaine's career moved smoothly through group and solo exhibitions, residencies at artists' colonies, and critical attention. In 1959, she contracted polio, after which, she had to learn to paint again. Most of the paintings in this book are interiors, often with flowers, tables set in such a way that the viewer wants to sit down in them and enjoy the company. New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1998, 154 pp., $50. ISBN 1-55595-113-9

Eileen Gray: Architect/Designer, revised edition, by Peter Adam presents the work of the Irish-born modernist designer and architect Eileen Gray (1878-1976), who spent most of her adult life in France. Independently wealthy, bisexual and photographed by Berenice Abbott, Gray's later interiors and buildings have a severe elegance of form often played off against interesting fabrics and complex textures. NY: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1987 & 2000, 408 pp, $39.95 ($60 Canadian) hardcover, ISBN 0-8109-4143-0.

Anne Vallayer-Coster: Painter to the Court of Marie Antoinette, ed. by Eik Kahng and Marianne Roland Michel, is a large, informative, attractive volume about an artist (1744-1818) best known for her flower paintings and still-lifes. Along with biographical details, it contains discussions of collectors, of painting materials and techniques the artist used, and of "Women and the Visual Arts in the Age of Marie-Antoinette." New Haven: Yale, 2002, 336 pp., $60 hardcover, ISBN 0-300-09329-2.

The Paintings of Joan Mitchell by Jane Livingston with essays by Linda Nochlin and Yvette Lee is a large format, luxurious book about an Abstract Expressionist painter (1926-1992) who was talented, rich, willful, well-educated, prone to violent relationships with men, difficult (alcoholic?), and highly self-motivated. One wonders what her work might have looked like without the cushion of money? Also, did that same money help defray the expenses involved with publishing this book? Does it matter? She was taken seriously by her peers, has had fairly continuous gallery representation since the 1950s, and exhibited in and been collected by museums. This book is part of a major show of Mitchell's work at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City and is published in conjunction with the Museum. Berkeley: U. of California Press, 2002, 237 pp., $35.00 (£24.95) paperback, ISBN 0-520-23570-3; $65.00 (£45) hardcover, ISBN 0-520-23568-0.

Jay DeFeo: Ingredients of Alchemy, Before and After the Rose presents the drawings and paintings of a germinal US West Coast artist (1929-1989) whose work (begun during the San Francisco Beat era) was known primarily to other Bay Area artists and writers. Most of her imagery is abstract or abstracted, evocative, moody, and very beautiful. NY: Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, 2002, 70 pp, $25.00 hardcover in boxed case, ISBN 1-930416-16-4. No distributor. No discount. Add $3.00 per book for shipping. Other books by Michael Rosenfeld Gallery include Betye Saar: A Version of Survival; Lenore Tawney: Mediations--Assemblages, Collages & Weavings; Alma Thomas: Phantasmagoria, Major Paintings of the 1970s; Blanche Lazzell: American Modernist, and Charmion von Wiegand: Spirit & Form--Collages, 1946-1961.

I have two books about Nancy Grossman's work on my desk. One is a decade old, the other a recent Michael Rosenfield Gallery publication. The older is distributed by them. In looking at Grossman's work, I am reminded that I am writing here for two audiences, those who will be buying the books to stock the shelves in women's bookstores and those who happen upon this review as part of Artwomen.org, a feminist-oriented Internet site.

The work for which Grossman is best known--black leather and zipper covered sculpted heads, especially popular in select gay male s/m circles--are well represented in Nancy Grossman by feminist art historian Arlene Raven. Brookville, NY: Hillwood Art Museum, 1991, dist. by Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, 143 pp, $35.00 hardcover in boxed case, ISBN 0-933699-22-0. No discount. Add $3.00 per book for shipping.

Nancy Grossman: Loud Whispers, Four Decades of Assemblage, Collage and Sculpture, presents a few of the heads, but is more concerned with her complex two-dimensional and low-relief collages, many built up of cast-off materials such as shoes. This volume will find an audience among edgier queer art aficionados and those who like strong designs with small to large psychic twists. NY: Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, 2001, 48 pp, $25.00 hardcover, ISBN 1-930416-07-5. No distributor. No discount. Add $3.00 per book for shipping.

ESPECIALLY FOR LIBRARIANS
Surrogate: Amy Kubes, intro by Frank Gohlke, afterword by A.S. Hamrah, is a photographic narrative in which each image stands alone, exquisite, black and white: A note left on a table, the remains of breakfast in a cereal bowl, an image of a dead fish titled "Insomnia," cotton underpants on a cantaloupe, a pepper wearing a band aid. Contemporary photographer Kubes, born and raised in Minnesota, now lives in Boston. There are only 300 copies of the book in print. Arcata, CA: The Women in Photography International Archive, 2001, 96 pp., no ISBN. Individual orders only at full price: $27.50 + $3.50 shipping from Peter E. Palmquist, 1183 Union Street, Arcata, CA 95521, or photohst@northcoast.com.

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