First exhibited in New York, at e-flux's storefront space in late 2005, Martha Rosler Library has continued to travel ever since -- seemingly on its own momentum -- showing up in a half dozen places in Europe so far. In brief, the project is approximately 7,800 of artist Martha Rosler's books, shelved and made available to the public. While each installation is slightly different, they tend to also include programs of public events and discussions.

I've been interested in the project since first hearing about it, but not having had the opportunity to personally visit the library at any of its venues, I've had to content myself with the odd article here and there. So, it was to my great interest that the hosts of its most recent stops in Liverpool and Endinburgh published a small book about the project: Martha Rosler Library, Paul Domela and John Byrne eds. (2008, Liverpool Biennial of Contemporary Art Ltd, $14.95, 9780953676170).

Aside from introductions from the hosting venues, this small, thoughtfully-produced volume includes an interview with Rosler and art writer and curator, Stephen Wright; a second with Wright and Anton Vidokle, the co-founder of e-flux and co-initiator of Martha Rosler Library; and an essay by Elena Filipovic, originally published in Afterall magazine last year. You would think that amongst this collection of writers and artists, one would get a clear sense of the project, and yet there's a peculiar ambiguity surrounding what's being said about the project and about how it really seems to operate.

In her interview, Rosler states that the library is a space free from her own authority, open for the public to make their own meaning from. And yet, after the first couple installations (where the organizations was based loosely on how it was found in her home) she imposed an stricter, numbered ordering system on the books. And as far as one can ascertain in the text, she also has a very particularly strong hand in their installation in each location.

Also, despite being comprised of her books, in her organization, and under her name, the artist further insists the library is not a portrait of her. Yet, Elena Filipovic brackets her entire essay on the scraps of toilet paper found marking the pages of many of the books. She dwells (awkwardly) on the very person-ness this implies.

Lastly, in the interview with Anton Vidokle (fascinating enough for his discussion of his e-flux project) one gets the distinct sense that his conception of the project and Rosler's conception of the project have veered significantly and perhaps uncomfortably away from one another over the last couple years.

These are interesting problems. Do the contradictions imply a failure on the part of the piece, or on the part of its interpreters? Given the continually extended tour the library has been on, and the interest it seems to generate in each stop, the piece is at least popular. But is this popularity a result of a misunderstanding of the project on the part of the venues and audiences, or is the project something none of the players here can quite grasp? Is Martha Rosler Library somehow above being described in words?

A new issue of the Hol Bulletin is (finally) available. This month features a biography of Giorgio Morandi, a conversation with Catherine Opie, the writings of Henri Cartier-Bresson, some exciting Hol Project Books, and highlights from the New Museum's September HOTLIST. Read it online now.

Subscribe for free to receive the next issue by email. October will feature books on Gilbert & George, Louise Bourgeois, and more.

The Man in the Picture: A Ghost Story, Susan Hill (September 2008, Overlook Press, $15, 9781590200919). Fiction. "In the apartment of Oliver's old professor, there's a painting on the wall, a mysterious depiction of masked revelers at the Venice carnival. On this cold winter's night, the professor has decided to reveal the painting’s eerie secret. The dark art of the Venetian scene, instead of imitating life, has the power to entrap it."

October

All the King's Horses, Michèle Bernstein (October 2008, Semiotext(e), $14.95, 9781584350651). Fiction. "[O]ne of the odder and more elusive, entertaining, and revealing documents of the Situationist International. At the instigation of her first husband, Guy Debord, Bernstein agreed to write a potboiler to help swell the Situationist International's coffers." Translation and introduction by John Kelsey. This weird connection between high art and trash fiction is too irresistable. For a different take on the Situationist International, see Correspondence: The Foundation of the Situationist International, being published by Semiotext(e) in December (listed below).

A Short Life of Trouble: Forty Years in the New York Art World, Marcia Tucker (October 2008, University of California Press, $27.50, 9780520257009). Memoir. "This engrossing memoir brings to vivid life the behind-the-scenes struggles of Marcia Tucker, the first woman to be hired as a curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art and the founder of the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York City." Edited and with an Afterword by artist Liza Lou. Marcia Tucker, who died in 2006, has also just had a volume of her short stories published through the Acadia Summer Arts Program in Maine, Marcia Tucker: Three Stories.

A Thing Among Things: The Art of Jasper Johns, John Yau (October 2008, D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers, $39.95, 9781933045627). Essay. "This beautifully illustrated and profoundly original volume of essays by the New York poet and critic John Yau mounts one of the most eloquent defenses of the art and vision of Jasper Johns ever written--going well past tired and traditional Formalist readings of the artist's work to propose a completely new way of reading them: One that is intensely human." Yau's first book on Johns, The United States of Jasper Johns (1996, Zoland Books), was generally well-regarded but for me didn't live up to expectations. Perhaps though, Yau was just warming up.

Caravaggio's Angel, Ruth Brandon (October 2008, Soho Constable, $25, 9781569475195). Mystery. "Dr. Reggie Lee, new at London's National Gallery, is planning a small exhibition of three almost identical Caravaggio paintings when she discovers a fourth. One must be a forgery. That discovery detonates multiple murders. Like Flavia di Stefano in Iain Pears' art history mysteries, Reggie is attractive, knowledgeable when it comes to art, and percipient when it comes to people with motives to defraud." I reviewed a numer of art mysteries in a previous Hol Bulletin, and am happy, even if guiltily, to see a new one published.

Chagall: A Biography, Jackie Wullschlager (October 2008, Knopf, $40, 9780375414558). Biography. "Wullschlager explores in detail Chagall’s complex relationship with Russia and makes clear the Russian dimension he brought to Western modernism. She shows how, as André Breton put it, “under his sole impulse, metaphor made its triumphal entry into modern painting,” and helped shape the new surrealist movement." THe publisher is comparing Wullschlager's Chagall biography to Hilary Spurling's acclaimed Matisse, and John Richardson's eqaully vaunted Picasso -- they just might be right.

Francis Bacon: Studies for a Portrait, Michael Peppiatt (October 2008, Yale University Press, $35.00, 9780300142556). Biography. "In this invaluable book Michael Peppiatt, a major art critic and close friend of Bacon’s, offers an entertaining and uniquely well-informed portrait of this complex artist. Peppiatt’s collection of interviews and essays spans more than forty years—from 1963, when the two men met, to 2007, when Peppiatt wrote an essay explaining Bacon’s passionate involvement with Van Gogh."

* The Lightning Field, Kenneth Baker (October 2008, Yale University Press, $35.00, 9780300138948). Essay. "Critic Kenneth Baker visited [Walter de Maria's] The Lightning Field numerous times over the course of the past 30 years in order to write this text. Inspired and challenged by this remarkable artwork, Baker speculates on the course of our contemporary human condition. But, rather than building on ideas in narrative sequence, he deploys quotation to effect multiple perspectives and points of view. Baker's citations and elegantly crafted prose are arrayed––in a metaphorical parallel to De Maria's choreographing of the vast landscape of the American Southwest––to create a compelling text." Preface by Lynne Cooke. This might be my favorite pick for the fall. Sounds like a great approach to a particularly interesting work.

The Painted Word, Tom Wolfe (October 2008, Picador, $14, 9780312427580). Essay. 1975 Reissue. "He addresses the scope of Modern Art, from its founding days as Abstract Expressionism through its transformations to Pop, Op, Minimal, and Conceptual.... '"If you have ever stared uncomprehendingly at an abstract painting that admired critics have said you ought to dig, take heart. Tom Wolfe . . . is on your side. The Painted Word may enrage you. It may confirm your darkest suspicions about Modern Art. In any case, it will amuse you.' --New York Sunday News"

Theanyspacewhatever (October 2007, Guggenheim Museum, $45, 9780892073771). Exhibition. "During the 1990s a number of artists claimed the exhibition as their medium. Working independently or in various collaborative constellations, they eschewed the individual object in favor of the exhibition environment as a dynamic arena, ever expanding its physical and temporal parameters." Essays by Michael Archer, Daniel Birnbaum, Nicolas Bourriaud, Xavier Douroux, Patricia Falguieres, Hal Foster, Massimiliano Gioni, Michael Govan, Molly Nesbit, Hans Ulrich Obrist, and more.

True to Life: Twenty-Five Years of Conversations with David Hockney, Lawrence Wechler (October 2008, University of California Press, $24.95, 9780520258792). Biography. "Soon after its publication in 1982, artist David Hockney read Lawrence Weschler's Seeing Is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees: A Life of Contemporary Artist Robert Irwin and invited Weschler to his studio to discuss it, initiating a series of engrossing dialogues, gathered here for the first time.... These conversations provide an astonishing record of what has been Hockney's grand endeavor, nothing less than an exploration of "the structure of seeing" itself." And don't miss University of California Press' November release of a greatly expanded version of Weschler's Seeing is Forgetting (listed below).

November

Envy, Alan Elkann (November 2008, Pushkin Press, $15.95, 9781901285819). Fiction. "...a writer falls victim to an obsessive curiosity about a famous artist Julian Sax...The narrator begins to fear that his wife Rossa might succumb to the charm of this seductive man who attracts women, paints them and then discards them." Translated from the Italian by Alastair McEwan. Creepy cover illustration by Hans Bellmer.

The Marriage of Love & Squalor, Jake Chapman (November 2008, FUEL Publishing, $32.95, 9780955862007). Fiction. "In his fiction debut, the notorious British artist Jake Chapman satirizes the standard paperback romance novel in his own inimitable way, slashing the genre down to bare bones and creating a disfigured version from the remains."

Me and Kaminski, Daniel Kehlmann (November 2008, Pantheon, $21.95, 9780307377449). Fiction. "Half road novel, half satire on the contemporary art scene, Kaminski and Me is a wryly humorous meditation on art, memory, and identity. It provides further compelling evidence of the exceptional talents of one of Europe's most exciting and gifted young novelists."

Seeing is Forgetting the Name of Thing One Sees, Lawrence Weschler (November 2008, University of California Press, $24.95, 9780520256095). Biography. 1982 Reissue. "Now expanded to include six additional chapters and twenty-four pages of color plates, Seeing Is Forgetting chronicles three decades of conversation between Lawrence Weschler and light and space master Robert Irwin... enhancing what many had already considered the best ever book on an artist." Some of my recent thoughts on Weschler and Irwin here.

Seven Days in the Art World, Sarah Thornton (November 2008, W. W. Norton, $24.95, 9780393067224). Essay. "[Sarah Thornton] reveals the new dynamics of creativity, taste, status, money, and the search for meaning in life. A judicious and juicy account of the institutions that have the power to shape art history, based on hundreds of interviews with high-profile players, Thornton's entertaining ethnography will change the way you look at contemporary culture." Thanks to Megan for the tip.

December

Art in Its Own Terms: Selected Criticism 1935–1975, Fairfield Porter (December 2008, MFA Publications, $22.50,  9780878467433). Criticism. "Known as one of America's finest and most influential painters, Fairfield Porter (1907-1975) was also a prolific and highly insightful art critic. His writing not only reflects the independent, original mind that presided over his own visual works, but also covers an extraordinary period in American art, in which he played the double role of protagonist and witness." I might be biased for having worked a bit for MFA Publications, but I'm very glad to see their artWorks series continuing.

Correspondence: The Foundation of the Situationist International (June 1957–August 1960), Guy Debord (December 2008, Semiotext(e), $19.95, 9781584350552). Letters. "Debord's letters--published here for the first time in English--provide a fascinating insider's view of just how this seemingly disorganized group drifting around a newly consumerized Paris became one of the most defining cultural movements of the twentieth century." Translated by Stuart Kendall. Introduction by McKenzie Wark, a 2006 Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant winner.

Boston Globe:
• The Forger's Spell: A True Story of Vermeer, Nazis, and the Greatest Art Hoax of the Twentieth Century, Edward Dolnick (Harper)

CAA Reviews:*
• The Anthropology of Art: A Reader, Howard Morphy and Morgan Perkins, eds. (Blackwell)

The Guardian:
• Life Class, Pat Barker (Penguin)

The New York Sun:
• The Man Who Made Vermeers: Unvarnishing the Legend of Master Forger Han van Meegeren, Jonathan Lopez (Harcourt)
• The Forger's Spell: A True Story of Vermeer, Nazis, and the Greatest Art Hoax of the Twentieth Century, Edward Dolnick (Harper)

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"Bowers: I admire how proactive you are in supporting other artists. Although there are many more opportunities for women artists today, the inequalities are still huge. There's still a glass ceiling, particularly in publishing. That's why I think it's so important that we are doing this interview together.

"Opie: Well, it's the same thing with me. I'm gonna have four floors at the Guggenheim...

"Bowers: I mean, c'mon Cathy, I'm so happy for you!

"Opie: ... yeah, it's unbelievable. But at the same time, whenever one of my contemporaries—Wolfgang Tillmans, Jack Pierson—sneezes out a photograph, a book is published."

Irwin and Weschler are rare talents in their respective fields. The great pleasure taken in reading these two books, undoubtedly stems from this fortunate pairing.

Robert Irwin was born in 1928 and has spent most of his life in and around Los Angeles. Despite a few years at Otis Art institute and an important early relationship to the artists of the now-infamous Ferus Gallery, Irwin's pursuits always tended toward the solitary and the obsessive. From the beginning of his artistic career, from series to series, he worked tirelessly to sharpen his skills and more importantly, his eye. He whittled away at the work in front of him and at the spaces in which that work was exhibited. Trying, it seemed, to reach a purity of vision and some satisfaction of the artistic questions that dogged him. As Weschler writes near the end of the book:

"At the terminus of Irwin's trajectory, when all the nonessentials had been stripped away, came the core assertion that aesthetic perception itself was the pure subject of art. Art existed not in objects but in a way of seeing.

"And that, for a man who had spent twenty-five years honing his vocation as a practicing artist, had some fairly profound implications."

Despite Irwin's realization that his work as an artist seemed to lead him to the conclusion that there was actually no art to be made, he did indeed find a way to carry on. And though Seeing is Forgetting was published too early to capture it all, in the nearly 30 years intervening years between Weschler's first conversations with the artist and today, Irwin has continued to explore, to stretch, to hone, and to realize an amazing body of work.

Perhaps the most renowned of his more recent works is the Getty garden. And for the occasion of this first (and only?) comprehensive garden project Irwin had thus far undertaken, Weschler rejoined the artist for a series of extensive conversations charting his process and progress. Though the resulting publication is simply a transcripts of those talks — rather than the more fully realized and crafted narrative of Weschler's earlier biography — it makes for satisfying reading. If for nothing else, for perfectly delaying that moment when, suddenly reaching the last page of Seeing is Forgetting, you regret having to let it go.

Lawrence Weschler, Becky Cohen, photo., Robert Irwin Getty Garden (2002, Getty Trust Publications, $45, 9780892366200)

Lawrence Weschler, Seeing is Forgetting the Name of Thing One Sees: A Life of Contemporary Artist Robert Irwin (1982, University of California Press, $17.95, 9780520049208)

St. Petersburg Times:
• The Other Half: The Life of Jacob Riis and the World of Immigrant America, Tom Buk-Swienty, Annette Buk-Swienty, trans. (W.W. Norton)

CAA Reviews:*
• Kingdom of Beauty: Mingei and the Politics of Folk Art in Imperial Japan, Kim Brandt (Duke University Press)
• Faith and Power in Japanese Buddhist Art, 1600–2005, Patricia J. Graham (University of Hawai'i Press)
• Acquisition: Art and Ownership in Edo-Period Japan, Elizabeth Lillehoj, ed. (Floating World Editions)

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"frieze is delighted to announce William Gass as the winner of the 2008 Writer's Prize. He will receive a prize of 2,000 GBP and be writing a review for the October issue.

"The runners up are Graham T. Beck and Conor Carville. Kate Forde, Tyler Friedman, Clay Lerner, J. MacNeill Miller, Chris Moore and Marianne Templeton have been highly commended.

"Jennifer Higgie, co-editor of frieze commented, 'The volume, quality and international scope of entries we received this year reflects the growing interest in frieze's commitment to encouraging new writing. William Gass' lively engagement with complex ideas made him a clear winner, and we look forward to his future contributions to the magazine. We are also very excited to have discovered new writers in Graham T. Beck and Conor Carville and in the shortlist of highly commended entrants. We were honoured to have Nicolas Bourriaud and Adrian Searle as judges and appreciate their dedication to new writing.'"

The Future of Publishing Think Tank is actually comprised of an intimate group of writing groups, booksellers, and indie publishers you've probably mostly never heard of —the meeting I attended included folks from Writers At Work, Les Figues Press, Los Angeles Public Library, Red Hen Press, Skylight Books, Poets & Writers, and Poet Joi Publications.

These enterprising folks gather once a month or so to talk about what might be around the corner in publishing. While they may not have the resources or clout of the major publishing houses, the wonderful thing about them is that they're operating at a level particularly close to the source of all things publishing—the writer. This on-the-ground perspective is their greatest asset and offers the promise to make their work relevant far beyond their small group.

While executives at the world's biggest publishing companies are indeed talking about and strategizing for the "future of publishing" I find it heartening (if not all that surprising) that small, independent groups like the one in L.A. are out there actually trying to make it happen.

These works—arguably some of the most important of the last fifty years—are also some of the western United States' greatest artistic assets. Unfortunately, early in the book Hogan (and so too the reader) is distracted from any deep consideration of the art by her self-professed nervousness about traveling alone and at such distances by car. While soon enough she, and we, get used to this subplot, it remains a theme throughout the book. Even near the end of the journey, she states:

"While I considered the trip so far a success, I realized that I pinned this assessment on my newfound ability to travel alone without having a nervous breakdown and not on the experience of viewing earth art."

She does ultimately make honest attempts at experiencing and understanding the art she sees. And her passages of smooth description and her ever-present personality make those attempts often interesting and rewarding to read. So while the book could as easily be considered personal essay as it is art criticism, it undoubtedly provided me new incentive to ponder a similar journey of my own.

Erin Hogan, Spiral Jetta, (2008, Univeristy of Chicago Press, $20, 9780226348452)