In 2010, when photographer Krista Elrick began traversing John James Audubon country in search of the birds the nineteenth-century American naturalist observed, painted, and wrote about, she encountered scarcely a sighting. Instead, she found the lushly forested watersheds and waterways that Audubon had passionately described in his journals vastly altered with many of the bird species extinct and their supporting habitat all but disappeared. Industrial buildings, parking lots, and strip malls had overtaken much of the area, edging out the natural world. It was a country no more. With a vintage Hasselblad film camera in hand, Elrick traveled more than 45,000 miles over ten years, following in the footsteps of Audubon as she sought clues to what had happened to these places and to the animals and peoples who once lived there. Starting at his home in Mill Grove near Philadelphia, she retraced Audubon’s many journeys to the bluffs of Cincinnati overlooking the Ohio River, to the key port town of Henderson, Kentucky, to the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers and the burgeoning frontier towns of Natchez in Mississippi and St. Francisville and New Orleans in Louisiana, then back east to Charleston in South Carolina and St. Augustine and Key West in Florida on the Atlantic Coast, and on to far West and the confluence of the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers and, on a final journey, to Audubon’s gravesite in the Trinity Church Cemetery in New York City. What a journey. Audubon’s approach to painting birds was unique. He would kill however many birds he needed, brought them back to a studio or a room where he was lodging, constructed scenes with backdrops from a variety of locales, and rendered them in the paintings we revere today. Elrick responds to that approach by creating collages of her own, integrating the black-and-white images she made of the places Audubon and she traveled through with historic bank notes, period maps, and other ephemera that yield fascinating insights into the landscapes of Audubon today. And we see the changes and resulting effects on the natural world and its species as well as on the lives of the Native Americans and African Americans who once occupied the areas during Audubon’s day. In her research Elrick also discovered - as his biographers have - that Audubon himself was something of an enigma, a fabulist who told enchanting yet often conflicting stories about his own history and identity and what he saw in the field. Elrick’s book offers us a fascinating compendium that gives us a fresh and provocative perspective on Audubon - the man and the artist - his times and enduring legacy.

Bill Woodrow (b.1948) and Richard Deacon (b.1949) have been making sculpture together since 1990. This new book is the first to showcase the work made over this thirty-year period. They have created over sixty works altogether which they call 'shared sculptures', highlighting the important equality of authorship and responsibility at stake for both these artists. Their shared sculptures exist as five main bodies of work, which have been variously shown in exhibitions in Britain and abroad: 'Only the Lonely' (1993), 'monuments' (1999), 'Lead Astray' (2004), 'On the Rocks' (2008) and 'Don't Start' (2016). Their recent body of work, 'We Thought About It A Lot' (2021), has seen them working on paper to explore their ideas together. This new book provides a rich visual account of these works, showing new and original photographs of them individually and in their exhibition contexts. It also includes studio photographs, images of the preview cards that they have designed for exhibitions over the years and reproduces one of their earlier fax exchanges. The publication features an introductory essay by the art historian and curator Jon Wood and is released to coincide with the artists' latest two-person exhibition, 'We Thought About It A Lot, and other shared drawings' at Ikon, Birmingham, in autumn 2021.

This volume brings together data collected from both previously published surveys and new data collected using satellite imagery on the architecture and construction of over 2,400 rural structures in nine different regions of Tripolitania and dating between the 1st c. BC and the 7th c. AD. This first part contextualises the material within the historical background of Tripolitania, previous investigations and methodological foundations, the evidence for pre-Roman architectures and settlement, and the chronology of rural settlement during the period under study based on ceramic evidence. The second part presents quantitative and qualitative analyses of the physical characteristics first of Roman military structures, and then of the main group of buildings under investigation: unfortified and fortified farm buildings. The ways in which different spaces may have been utilised and the spatial relationships between the settlement groups formed by these buildings provide insight into how and why different types of buildings developed in the countryside during between the 1st c.

This book offers an incomparable spectacle, that of an intimate face-to-face with the animal, here treated as a subject in its own right, on an equal footing with man, and it encourages us to take the time to contemplate it, to better question our relationship to the wild world and our place in it. And if the photographer has long since chosen black and white, it is to better play with the incomparable light of Africa, its singular purity that gives the feeling of being in direct contact with the material, without filter. Laurent Baheux's approach is not that of a naturalist or ethology-loving photographer, he does not seek to describe behavior or to unravel the mystery of a sensitive area of the animal that has remained unknown until now. What he finds with African elephants is the feeling of a rediscovered plenitude, of wonder at the world, of a rebirth, of a reconnection with the living. Far from the crowds and the urban world, it is in the heart of African national parks that he experiences the deep meaning of life, and that he offers himself the luxury of slowness, essential when he is 'is about letting the animal approach. The elephant obliges man to humility. We are nothing compared to his power and his intelligence. It is he who decides on the meeting, or, on the contrary, who imposes his distance. We are only "tolerated guests", as Laurent Baheux reminds us. The elephant is not a predator and it is the man who threatens its existence today, competing with it for the control of a territory which is shrinking more and more every day. The pressure of human activities, the demographic growth are the dangers which endanger its survival. As an extension of his militant commitment and his anti-speciesist discourse which seeks to break down the psychological barriers linked to the categorization of animals – wild, farmed, domesticated – according to their degree of utility or their "nuisance" power, Laurent Baheux provides new proof of the need to save elephants and protect their environment, not just because they populate our collective subconscious, from illustrated children's books to the travel stories of early explorers, but because they are closely linked to the balance of our planet and that they refer us, like mirrors, to our own finitude, ineluctable, we who resemble them so much, so strong and so fragile at the same time. "Courage is the reverse, the armed arm of wonder. [...] Where many, cynical or disillusioned have retreated, [Laurent Baheux] has this power to rely on the beauty of things, to believe in it and to be enraged at seeing it mistreated. He has that faith."

In 2020, the Dresden Kupferstich-Kabinett celebrates its 300th anniversary. Founded in 1720 by Augustus the Strong as a museum specializing in works on paper, the collection – now with over half a million works, from the Middle Ages to the present day – has always acquired contemporary art alongside recognised masterpieces. The collection – which includes exceptional works by Jan van Eyck, Dürer, Verrocchio, Grünewald, Cranach, Holbein, Rembrandt, Caspar David Friedrich, Ludwig Richter, Toulouse Lautrec, Mondrian, Hermann Glöckner, Gerhard Altenbourg, A. R. Penck, Georg Baselitz and Evelyn Richter – began in the 18th century with drawings, miniatures and prints, before photography was added in 1898 as the promising future means of reproduction. The people in charge of the collection always had a keen eye for the art of their contemporaries and often demonstrated particular foresight in their acquisitions. Many of the works that were contemporary and still unknown at the time of their acquisition are now considered special treasures and rank equally with those that had been added to the collection as masterpieces. Exemplary are freshly printed etchings by Giovanni Battista Piranesi, which were little known at the time, and were bought in the 18th century. And towards the end of the 19th century, the then director Max Lehrs promoted artists directly, such as Max Klinger and Käthe Kollwitz.Today, the Kupferstich-Kabinett occupies an outstanding international position thanks to the high quality and abundance of works. However, the collection is often hidden from the public. Works on paper in particular require special protection and, due to their fragility and extreme sensitivity to light, they can only rarely leave the safety of the depot. The anniversary gives reason to air many masterpieces of the collection, and offers the opportunity to look into both the past and into the future, and to anchor the Kupferstich-Kabinett with its seemingly inexhaustible holdings as a lively, innovative and democratic place in the public consciousness – as a place where creativity and knowledge, critical thinking and aesthetic pleasure can be experienced.The exhibition of 84 masterpieces, which opens in Dresden in April 2020, will then travel to New York in October 2020, where they will be presented in the prominent, international context of The Morgan Library & Museum.

Mariele Neudecker is a German-born, Bristol-based artist working at the crossover of art and science. Her multimedia practice, which incorporates sculpture, video, painting and sound, explores the processes and effects of perception, the complexities and contradictions of landscapes and visuality, and the politics of representation and territorialisation. The influence of the nineteenth-century German romantic sublime is interwoven alongside inspiration from Neudecker’s work with scientists, as a guest artist on the Arts at CERN programme, her trips to the Arctic and travel elsewhere. This major monograph, published following an exhibition of the same name at Limerick City Gallery of Art – Neudecker’s first comprehensive solo exhibition in Ireland - presents more than 200 works from a 35-year-long career. In addition to a foreword by Úna McCarthy, the gallery's Director and Curator, essays by distinguished academics and curators from across the fields of art and science address diverse areas of Neudecker’s practice. A 'timeline' that Neudecker made specially for 'SEDIMENT' concludes the publication. Greer Crawley, an Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Drama, Theatre and Dance at Royal Holloway, University of London, considers Neudecker’s archive, studio and her working processes, while Ariane Koek, an international expert in the field of arts, science and technology, suggests that the contemporary sublime Neudecker is so often described as seeking is, for her, the very process of perception itself. Her comprehensive introduction to Neudecker’s practice also discusses the tank works, for which the artist is best known, in which fibreglass landscapes are suspended in chemical solutions. James Peto, from the Wellcome Collection, London, focuses on issues of representation, post-colonialism and ‘time’, while Alice Sharp, Artistic Director of Invisible Dust, looks at Neudecker’s work and collaborations concerning the deep sea. Klaus Dodds, Professor of Geopolitics at Royal Holloway, University of London, returns to questions of territorialisation in and around the Arctic, and Professor Kerstin Mey, Interim President of the University of Limerick, considers the genre of still life in Neudecker’s photographic series 'Plastic Vanitas' (2015). Dominic Gray, Projects Director at Opera North, offers insight into Neudecker’s work with sound and music, addressing issues of performance, translation and scale; while Pontus Kyander, an independent writer and curator based in Helsinki, returns to the motif of the forest, arguing that any reading of Neudecker's work might be taken beyond an interest in landscape and the sublime to incorporate contemporary ecological questions. Finally, Crawley's second offering returns to Neudecker's use of sound - its juxtaposition and superimposition, alongside the notion of the window as a device, considering how each creates 'temporal turbulences' and 'an entanglement of materiality, space, form and position,' foregrounding the artist’s desire for viewers to see everything as eternally in flux. The publication, which is released to coincide with a new iteration of Neudecker's exhibition 'SEDIMENT' at Hestercombe, Somerset, in summer 2021, has been edited by Greer Crawley, designed by Herman Lelie and Stefania Bonelli, and printed by EBS Verona. It is published by Anomie Publishing, London. Mariele Neudecker (b. 1965, Dusseldorf, Germany) undertook a BA at Goldsmiths College, London (1987–90), and an MA in sculpture at Chelsea College of Art and Design, London (1990-1). She has shown widely in international solo and group exhibitions. Neudecker is Professor of Fine Art at Bath School of Art, where she runs the research cluster Making | Art | Science | Environment. She is on the Arts at CERN’s guest programme, the European Commission’s JRC SciArt advisory panel and the steering committee of Centre of Gravity, UK. Neudecker works with Pedro Cera, Lisbon; In Camera Gallery, Paris; and Thomas Rehbein Galerie, Cologne.

Why criss-cross Iceland in all directions, in all seasons, when the world is so vast?For the inner exile offered by this walk on the heights. For the first snows that upset the landscape and teleport us into a charcoal painting. For the spring which will bring back with the birds a forgotten sweetness. For the summer with days without night. For the rare men and women I have been lucky enough to meet. For the infinite range of emotions aroused by these boreal steppes. For the space, the freedom, the omnipresence of natural forces, which help to breathe deeper.To find the oldest living All Black in a hospice in Auckland, to share a vintage wine with Jim Harrison in his house in Montana, to draw the portrait of penguins in Antarctica, to cross the rivers of Iceland on foot…Photographer, journalist, author and speaker, Olivier Joly has always let his steps guide him towards emotions and encounters. Surveyor of large geographical spaces and human intimacy, he saw over time his intimate compass pointing to the cold and windy ends of the world. This is how he found his promised land. Twenty trips and a year on the spot have made him one of Iceland's most knowledgeable connoisseurs. After the success of his book Four Seasons in Iceland, he now looks at it in black and white.

During the past thirty years, there has emerged throughout America a new kind of urban vision that blends residential/suburban development with large-scale commercial centers. Rolling farmland and country estates that used to surround towns and cities have given way to vast housing developments that feature nearly identical, hastily built mini-mansions with enormous garages and fancy yards. These are the new bedroom communities for middle-class Americans who commute to urban America where the jobs are. For the first time, these residential enclaves are linked to big-box shopping complexes where traditional Main Streets of yore have been eclipsed by malls known as “lifestyle centers” filled with national chains whose commercial architecture is a blend of multiple historic periods and styles that create a fanciful display but have no relation to regional traditions. Behind this imagined past era of luxurious consumerism is a ubiquitous culture based on global marketing in which homogenization and conformity have won over the American dream and created a new kind of American heartland. Andrew Borowiec is the first photographer to provide a comprehensive vision of this new American landscape. He directs our attention toward how such development has evolved in his home state of Ohio, a longstanding bellwether for American tastes and values whose citizens have voted for every winning candidate in a presidential election but one since 1944. It's also the place where fast-food companies test-market new products and the place where chewing gum, Teflon, and the first airplane, cash register, gas-powered automobile, traffic signal, and vacuum cleaner were invented. Even the state's Division of Travel and Tourism has long relied on “Ohio, the Heart of It All” as its popular motto to attract visitors to the state. Andrew Borowiec's work follows in the tradition of other legendary photographers who so keenly interpreted land and life in America—among them Walker Evans, Robert Frank, Robert Adams, Frank Gohlke, and other New Topographics photographers. He has used his keen eye and extensive fieldwork to give us a fresh, humorous, and razor-sharp view of what is happening in America today. There is a new heartland, representing a new American dream, and it can be found in the new residential and commercial landscapes of Ohio and the rest of America, if we choose to open our eyes and take a look.

By using an older form of technology, French artist Éric Antoine strips away modern-day conceits in the quest for simplicity, solitude, and core truths. The works speak to the passage of time but also to a sense of timelessness. Useful Lies brings together several series among the last he produced. Aside from a single cardboard box in Les Intrus - a series that highlights the human body and the fragility of shelter - nothing in the photographs dates them. And yet, his framing and cropping are entirely modern, subverting any suggestion of nostalgia. These are not attempts to replicate nineteenth-century photographs but rather forays into unchartered territory that use the past to draft new stories.The collodion process also helps visually convey the feeling of being caught between two forces: the drive toward perfection and the desire to embrace flaws. More specifically, Antoine is drawn both to German New Objectivity of the 1920s, with its rejection of Expressionism, and to the movement known as pictorialism. His medium dovetails with his interest in New Objectivity by allowing for great precision and very fine detail. At the same time, the process is highly pictorial in that the artist essentially paints the glass plate with a sensitive coating, which pools and drips and must be controlled. This tension between exactitude and imperfection opens up the works, creating scenes that are both true to nature and evocative of their own realities.

Plains Indian ledger art grew out of the Native tradition of recording and chronicling through art important exploits by warriors and chiefs, among them images of war and hunting, that would adorn tipis and animal hides. These were seen as historical markers. But Native life on the Great Plains underwent tremendous change following the American Civil War, when the American conquest of the West was in full gear. In just a few decades, access to the hides of diminishing herds of bison, deer, antelope, and elk became more difficult and eventually impossible with reservation life. Native people creatively turned to the easily available ledger books of settlers, traders, and military men as their new canvases. The ledger art drawings of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries are revered today for their depiction of Native life during the difficult transition to life on the reservation. The ledger drawings thus became a singularly important way for Native artists to preserve tribal history and to serve as a new kind of personal socio-political expression. Dwayne Wilcox, who grew up on the Pine Ridge Reservation and is a member of the Oglala Lakota Nation, became interested in ledger art at an early age. He was influenced by the work of Lakota ledger artists such as Amos Bad Heart Bull (1869-1913), but he always sought to defy stereotypical notions of Native life and history and create his own artistic vision. Dwayne eventually focused on humor as his way to comment on the objectification of Native Americans. Skilled as an artist beyond measure, Dwayne’s ledger art drawings win major prizes and are sought by museums and collectors who see in him a true artist. Visual/Language is Dwayne’s first book, and it was created as a collaborative effort with curator Karen Miller Nearburg, who provides an enlightening introduction to his work. This book will surely penetrate the heart and soul and mind of all who read it.

Journey of the Mind is the first publication from Without Shape Without Form (WSWF), an arts organisation and arts space established in 2017 by volunteers from the Guru Maneyo Granth Gurdwara (GMGG) in Slough, England. WSWF is the UK’s first, and currently only, permanent Sikh art gallery. The publication has been created as an illustrated introduction to the history, stories and teachings of Sikhism. The Gurus - the teachers of the Sikh faith - shared a message of kindness, equality and inclusivity, helping all humanity find peace in troubled times and connect with truth through the journey of the mind. We live in difficult times. Many people struggle with hectic schedules and constant pressure from a busy world in which we are always connected through digital media but are somehow less connected to each other in real life. The impact of Covid-19, and the constant worry and isolation that many of us experienced, have left their mark on our mental health. On top of this, concern for the health of our planet and social injustice have left some feeling hopeless. The mission of the Gurus was supported by brave and inspiring warriors who, following the teaching of the Gurus, devoted their minds to Waheguru (the Creator) and found peace in the face of adversity. The last Guru, Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji, is not a person, but a collection of texts embodying the teachings of Sikhism, accessible to everyone, for all time. Journey of the Mind shares the wisdom of these texts, including excerpts in the original Gurmukhi, Punjabi. Digital paintings by world-renowned Sikh artist Kanwar Singh illustrate the stories of those who attained the highest spiritual levels, which gave them the clarity and foresight to see all as one. In today's frenetic, turbulent world, the message of the Gurus is more relevant than ever - we have everything we need within us to achieve peace. It is the ambition and hope of WSWF that people will be inspired by these words to embark on their own journey of the mind. Journey of the Mind is a publication and travelling exhibition by Without Shape Without Form. The book has been designed and produced by Herman Lelie. It is co-published by Without Shape Without Form and Anomie Special Projects, London.

This book celebrates the most important collection of 17th-century Chinese porcelain in the world, assembled by the distinguished British diplomat Sir Michael Butler. His passion for porcelain is clearly reflected in the over eight hundred pieces he collected and lived with at his home and private museum in Dorset. The pots (as Sir Michael called them), many of extreme rarity or exquisite quality, give testimony to the incredible depth of knowledge he acquired over five decades and his outstanding contribution to research and education in this previously neglected field of study. This lavish and comprehensive collection covers most types of porcelain produced at Jingdezhen, in Jiangxi province, during the 17th century. The variety of the pieces carefully acquired by Sir Michael reflects the great innovative spirit of the highly skilled Jingdezhen potters and painters at a time when they were released from the controls of Imperial patronage, between the end of the reign of the Ming Emperor Wanli in 1620 and the re-establishment of the Imperial kilns by the Qing Emperor Kangxi in 1683. It is a study collection of porcelain unrivalled in its breath and rarity that demonstrates the stylistic and qualitative evolution which occurred in Chinese porcelain production during the 17th century. An introduction written by Katharine Butler tells the fascinating story of the circumstances that encouraged her father to acquire, collect and passionately study Chinese porcelain of the 17th century; how he found rare pieces with dates, interesting inscriptions, seal marksor narrative scenes; and how the collection and his scholarly publications came to be internationally renowned. The core of the book is composed of nine sections presenting the main categories of porcelains in the collection: Late Ming, High Transitional, Shunzhi, Early Kangxi, Mid-Late Kangxi, Monochromes and Famille Verte, as well as disputed pieces. Some of the highlights are the extremely rare High Transitional pieces painted only in overglaze enamels dating to the Chongzhen reign, c.1640-43; the first piece acquired by Sir Michael, a green enamel winepot, dating to the early Kangxi reign, c.1665–70; a group of rare dated Zhonghe Tang pieces painted in underglaze blue and red, and an early Kangxi basin finely painted in underglaze blue and red with a Master of the Rocks landscape, dating to c.1670–75. Leaping the Dragon Gate refers to the symbolic metamorphosis from a humble carp to a mighty dragon – the most powerful of the Four Divine Creatures – that a student would undergo on succeeding in the Jinshi or Imperial civil service examinations. Passing these examinations required years, sometimes decades, of enormous effort to acquire the requisite educational merit and success was very rare. It is a worthy metaphor for Sir Michael’s scholarly achievement. This 384-page book with over 600 colour illustrations is a catalogue raisonné of almost his entire 17th century porcelain collection, including many previously unpublished pieces. In the spirit of keeping the family legacy of acquisition and scholarship alive, the authors have included a few important, recently purchased pieces and also have revised and expanded the list of all known dated pieces of 17th Century Chinese porcelain in the world that Sir Michael compiled in his 1992 USA exhibition catalogue.

This catalogue accompanies an exhibition which presents artefacts from burial mounds of the Saka people of East Kazakhstan, who, over 2,500 years ago, lived lives rich in complexity. The Saka people occupied a landscape of seemingly endless steppe to the west, bounded by mountains to the east and south. Known to be fierce warriors, they were also skilled craftspeople, producing intricate gold and other metalwork. Their artistic expression indicates a deep respect for the animals around them – both real and imagined. They dominated their landscapes with huge burial mounds of sophisticated construction, burying their horses with elite members of their society. Recent excavations and analyses, led by archaeologists from Kazakhstan, have demonstrated that by looking through a scientific and social lens at what the Saka left behind we can paint a picture of a complex society. We can start to understand how it affected the way people lived, how they travelled, the things they made and what they believed in. Including contributions from experts at Nazarbayev University, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, and the University of Cambridge, this publication details the results of new archaeological research from East Kazakhstan. It is richly illustrated with photographs of intricate gold artefacts in the Saka-Scythian animal style, landscape and aerial photography of the burial mounds, and details of the excavations and analyses. Grounded in decades of careful study, papers by the two leading Kazakhstani archaeologists of the East Kazakhstan region, Professors Zainolla Samashev and Abdesh Toleubayev, demonstrate current archaeological thinking in Kazakhstan today. These papers are complemented by material from a team of international scholars, which contribute the results of new scientific analyses on the artefacts, and wider Eurasian perspectives on the Saka people and their practice of horse burial.

As she crosses Asia on her own, the path of a 30-year-old French girl accidentally crosses that of a unique religious community, tiny and composed exclusively of women. They live in Puntsokling: one of the ten totally destitute Buddhist nunnery of Zanskar, a valley on the edge of the Himalayas in northwestern India, still isolated from the rest of the country by its inhospitable geography. This meeting at the end of the world will change the course of her existence and, without a doubt, that of the nuns. A revelation and a long human as well as spiritual journey. Caroline Riegel's book is a two-sided journey. Through the story she tells us, we discover both the charm of a unique "tribe" with astonishing sorority (a journey into the intimate) and the masterful beauty of their territory (a journey into the landscapes). But humans are inseparable from the environment in which they live. Here, the harshness of the elements did not generate that of the characters but their dazzling vitality. The hostile environment strengthened hearts, embracing in one movement the spirituality and uncompromising beauty of Nature. Devoid of the superfluous, these Sowers rub shoulders with the essence of the soul, the awareness of Happiness. Caroline Riegel's photographs demonstrate the closeness that she has created with her "subjects", giving photographic work the power to reveal the Other and to make him access the universal. The still image gives them a voice and opens up intercultural and intergenerational dialogue. Caroline Riegel is not just a simple spectator, her photography is not sidelined, it does not freeze the Other. On the contrary, it is the source of life, and testifies to the flourishing of bodies, faces and souls. Her camera is a tool she uses to testify to the uniqueness of this extraordinary community to as many people as possible. Caroline Riegel delivers a luminous tribute, in images and words, to these women who have found, in the heart of the Zanskar mountains, far from the modern world, a balance of life. Faced with destitution: joy. Faced with loneliness: solidarity. In the face of autarky: authenticity. In the same way that Matthieu Ricard - the preface's author - speaks of wonder to the world, the smile of The Sowers of Joy testifies to their singular gaze on what surrounds them, on the meaning of existence, on simplicity of life. In the great tradition of books by traveling photographers, The Sowers of Joy is both an ode to Nature, a unique encounter with otherness, an openness to the world, a quest for meaning, a tribute humanist, a family album where love, respect and benevolence burst out on every page. Photographer Caroline Riegel has lived day after day with these nuns from afar. His photographs are snapshots of simple gestures in a mostly agrarian community, where each activity gives its rhythm to the unfolding of the days, according to the seasons. Often ancestral practices, carried by a Buddhist culture almost 1000 years old.

This book tells the fascinating story of the rhinoceros Miss Clara, the most famous animal of the eighteenth century. It accompanies the fi rst ever major loan exhibition devoted to Clara and celebrity pachyderms in the UK and will off er a signifi cant contribution to scholarship on the subject. The latest in the Barber’s acclaimed objectin-focus series, Miss Clara focuses on a small bronze sculpture of a rhinoceros, and also considers other celebrity beasts, the emergence of menageries and zoos, and the significance of the capture and captivity of these big beasts within wider academic discussions of colonialism and empire. 'Miss Clara' arrived in Europe from the Dutch East Indies in 1741, brought by a retired Dutch East India Company captain, Douwe Mout van der Meer, who then toured her round Europe (including England) to huge acclaim and excitement. Jungfer Clara (so christened while visiting Würzburg in 1748) was the fi rst rhino to be seen on mainland Europe since 1579 and the object of great wonder and aff ection. Her fame generated a massive industry in souvenirs and imagery from life-scale paintings by major masters to cheap popular prints; there were even Clara-inspired clocks and hairstyles. This book will look at the phenomenon of Clara but, unlike previous studies of the subject, will focus primarily on sculptural/3D representations of her, within the context of other celebrity pachyderms represented by artists between the 16th and 19th centuries. Miss Clara is one of the most remarkable and best-loved sculptures in the Barber and was praised by the great German art historian and museum director Wilhelm von Bode as 'the fi nest animal bronze of Renaissance' - a telling tribute to its quality, even if he misunderstood its date. The Barber’s cast is one of only two known, the other being at the V&A. There are also closely related marble versions. Other celebrity beasts featured will include the elephants Hansken, Chunee and Jumbo; Dürer’s and various London rhinos; and the hippo Obaysch, star of London Zoo in the 1850s, and the fi rst to be seen in Europe since the fall of the Roman Empire. The publication will consist of entries for the thirty exhibits - included extended texts by Dr Helen Cowie (York University) on images of Chunee and Obaysch - preceded by three essays. Robert Wenley, Deputy Director of the Barber Institute, and the curator of the exhibition, will relate the story of Miss Clara (and of other celebrity rhinos), and explore the sculptural representations of her, presenting new research into their attribution and dating. The eminent sculptural historian, Dr Charles Avery, formerly of the V&AMuseum and Christie’s, will write a complementary essay about celebrity elephants in Europe between 1500 and 1700. Dr Sam Shaw (Open University), will discuss private menageries and public zoos between about 1760 and 1860 in the UK, and consider celebrity pachyderms as emblems of empire and colonialism.

Horror films. Deanna Durbin musicals. Francis the talking mule. Ma and Pa Kettle. Ross Hunter weepies. Theme parks. ET. Apollo 13. These are only a few of the many faces of Universal Pictures. In February 1906 Carl Laemmle, German immigrant and former clothing store manager, opened his first nickelodeon in Chicago. He quickly moved from exhibition to distribution and to film production. A master of publicity and promotions, within ten years "Uncle Carl" had moved his entire operation to southern California, founded a city, and established Universal Pictures as one of the major Hollywood studios. In time Universal found its niche in horror films featuring Karloff and Lugosi, comedies starring Abbott and Costello and W.C. Fields, and low-budget musicals. But Carl Laemmle Jr. proved less adept than his father at empire building. Eventually he was forced out by financial difficulties, opening the way for a string of studio heads who entered and exited one after another. Thus the age of corporate Hollywood arrived at Universal Pictures earlier than at other studios. The Universal-International merger in 1946, Decca's stock takeover in the early 1950s, and MCA's buyout in 1962 all presaged today's Hollywood, where the art of the deal often eclipses the art of making movies. Stars and executives have come and gone, shaping and reshaping the studio's image, but through it all Universal's revolving globe logo has remained on movie screens around the world. And, unlike several other studios of Hollywood's golden age, Universal still makes movies today.