Joseph Cornell's Manual of Marvels: How Joseph Cornell reinvented a French agricultural manual to create an American masterpiece

by Dickran Tashjian (Editor)

Other authorsJoseph Cornell (Illustrator), Analisa Leppanen-Guerra (Editor)
Hardcover, 2012

Status

Available

Call number

N6537.C66

Publication

Thames & Hudson (2012), Edition: Facsimile, 152 pages

Description

"Joseph Cornell's Manual of marvels introduces one of Joseph Cornell's most brilliant yet least-known works. The 'Untitled book object : Journal d'agriculture pratique et journal de l'agriculture,' as the work is formally known, is extremely fragile ... Our ambition has been to make the entire work accessible. To that end, Joseph Cornell's Manual of marvels includes an interactive CD that will allow the reader to explore the entire book; a collection of essays about Cornell and the making of the Untitled book object; and an abridged facsimile edition of the book."--[Vol. 2], p. 5.

User reviews

LibraryThing member petervanbeveren
A fabulous facsimile of an almost unknown masterpiece by Joseph Cornell, presented in a box, along with a volume of essays and an interactive DVD

One of Joseph Cornell’s favorite pastimes was to meander through the used bookstalls of lower Manhattan, sorting through old books, magazines,
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postcards, photos, and other ephemera in search of items to spark his creative impulses. Sometime in the early 1930s he came upon the Journal d’Agriculture Practique (Volume 21, 1911), a voluminous handbook of advice for farmers. Though he was very much an urban creature, he adored French culture of that period, and the book was filled with charming black and white engraving and photographs of pigs, horses, vegetables, and farm machinery. Over time Cornell altered and reinvented many of the pages in the Journal. He inserted collages, photomontages, and occasional drawings; he crossed out words in the text and made French puns with others. Hand-colored engravings, cutouts, and lift-ups intricately transport the reader from page to page. The dazzling elegance of Cornell’s work on the Journal has rarely been viewed. It was discovered in his basement studio soon after his death in 1972 and is now in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Due to its fragility, the work is not well known, even among Cornell scholars. Now, in a unique venture, sixty of the most extraordinary pages have been re-created in virtual facsimile, with cutouts, glue-ons, and other unique handmade details. Included in a specially designed box are a DVD of the entire work, including pop-up commentaries, and a volume of illustrated essays on the Journal and Cornell’s artistic practice. 103 illustrations
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Language

Original language

English

Original publication date

2012 (Facsimile
ca. 1933 (Original)

Physical description

152 p.; 11 inches

ISBN

0500516499 / 9780500516492
Page: 0.1203 seconds