Lorna Simpson collages

INSIDE NORTH KOREA By Oliver Wainwright. (Taschen, $60.) The Guardian's architecture and design critic gained remarkable access behind the closed doors of a rapidly developing Pyongyang, from its designs for a FIFA World Cup stadium that is unlikely ever to see a game, to the cultural, commercial and residential structures whose interiors are designed to propagate a national fantasy, lorna simpson collages By Lorna Simpson. (Chronicle, $29.95.) A retrospective of the AfricanAmerican conceptual artist's depictions of black women's and men's hair, gathered from vintage issues of Ebony and Jet magazines. one of a kind By Chris Gorman. (Nancy Paulsen, $17.99.) The drummer for the Grammy-nominated band Belly writes and illustrates a picture book about a young boy whose fauxhawk and leather jacket make him stand out from his peers - until he finds a group of similar misfits who make him feel less alone. head to toe: the nude in graphic design By Mirko Hic and Steven Heller. (Rizzoli, $50.) From the sweet and ubiquitous photographs of John Lennon and Yoko Ono to lesser-known abstractions and a fair share of immodest representations of male and female genitalia, the images collected by these two veterans of art direction and scholarship reveal the human body in a whole new light - sociological, humorous, aesthetic, protest: the aesthetics of resistance Edited by Basil Rogger, Jonas Vögeli and Ruedi Widmer. (Lars Muller/Aperture, $29.95.) With contributions from writers including The Times's photography critic Teju Cole, Marleen Fitterer and Wong Chi Lui, this survey of the visual slogans that have been used as tools for social change over the last half-century reveals how blurred is the line between politics and poetics, art and life. "I recently visited the ravishing exhibition of Sally Mann's photographs at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Her work, and the lyrical passages of her writing posted alongside it, moved me to tears. In the last room of the show, 1 saw a dog-eared copy of her memoir, hold still. 1 ordered it as soon as 1 got home and fell under its spell the moment 1 began reading it. 1 grew up in Texas, so Mann's evocation of her unconventional Southern family's life and of the intimate legacies of racism really resonated with me. She breathes life into the leading characters in her personal history, and tells her mesmerizing tale with an honesty that is at once unsparing and full of love." - CELIA DUGGER, HEALTH AND SCIENCE EDITOR, ON WHAT SHE'S READING.

Hair plays significantly in the work of Brooklyn artist Simpson, as poet Elizabeth Alexander notes in her introduction to this electrifying monograph of Simpson's collages: "Black women's heads of hair are galaxies unto themselves, solar systems, moonscapes, volcanic interiors. The hair [Simpson] paints has a mind of its own. It is sinuous and cloudy and fully alive. It is forest and ocean, its own emotional weather. " The collages, reproduced one per page within, pair raw gemstones with photographs, mostly of black women, collected from vintage advertisements. The women's hair are made up of the crystalline or shiny black stones, honoring the multidimensional quality of natural hair. The gemstone collages are presented as vintage scientific plates, the conglomerations of women and minerals. In the latter half of the book, the collages are simpler but equally as bold, each construction featuring a single cutout with hair rendered in flame or wave-like washes of paint. Simpson's use of repeated motifs mimics the mass production of fashion magazines, and she occasionally includes snippets of phrases taken from the original ads where the images first appeared ("Put on your Afro pony tail and swish those superflies away!"). Simpson's collages maintain an element of surprise and visual power page after page. Color illus. (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Contemporary artist Simpson is well regarded for her conceptual photography, which explores the image of African American women through the lenses of gender, culture, and history, often with a focus on hairstyles, as evidenced by the works presented here. A brief introduction by poet/scholar Elizabeth Alexander illuminates the experiences of black women expressed in Simpson's art. Also included is an artist statement, derived from phrases in the advertisements from which Simpson pulled the images in the collages. With the earliest works dating back to 2011, the most recent from 2017, this is strictly a catalog of Simpson's collages and does not feature a biography, exhibition history, or critical interpretation. Those seeking an analysis of the work should consider monographs by Kellie Jones and others or by Okwui Enwezor, Helaine Posner, and Hilton Als instead. VERDICT Will be a valuable resource for readers well acquainted with Simpson's career while piquing the interest of those less familiar. Readers interested in art featuring African American women and themes of beauty will also be captivated.-Shannon Marie Robinson, Drexel Univ. Libs., Philadelphia © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.