Whitney biennial 2004 /

This elaborate, pretentious book, plus a box with 107 loose items, accompanied the 2004 Whitney Biennial. Each of the three curators contributed an essay, explicating their interpretations of the work of the 108 artists or collaborative teams in the show--paintings, drawings, videos, films, photographs, installations, performances. Themes are the role of nostalgia--especially the relationship between some of today's artists and those of the 1960s and 1970s--myth and fantasy, and the changing influences of film, video, etc. Twelve selected excerpts or essays that further express the mood and content of the show--the ambiguity, the absurd, etc., characterizing our troubled and media-driven world--are included. Next are short essays about each of the artists or teams exhibited, with an illustration of their work (not necessarily that in the show) done to complete the book before final installation. A fine-print list of the works in the exhibition and a schedule of screenings and performances follows. The box contains small-scale printed "artists' projects" of various sizes and shapes. The exhibition received generally favorable reviews. Here the verbal dominates the visual. For rare book collections in graduate or professional schools. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. Graduate students through professionals. J. J. Poesch emerita, Tulane University

This two-part catalogue accompanying the Whitney Museum of American Art's showcase of new American art exudes energy. The first of these two volumes consists of an 11U" 11U" book that includes essays by two of the biennial's three curators (and an introduction by all three), as well as terrific commissioned essays on recent aesthetics by the likes of Wayne Koestenbaum ("Fag Limbo") and Artforum International's Tim Griffin, juxtaposed with previously published works by writers and artists, illuminating the biennial's emergent themes of nostalgia, the American Gothic, pop sensory overload, gender identities and politics in (and as) art. The 108 artists get short bios with one illustration each; it's disappointing to be confronted with small reproductions and with artworks that are not necessarily included in the show. The second volume, however, consists of a box filled with limited-edition commissioned works (some credited, most uncredited) by each artist, who were asked to work in one of several formats: the bumper stickers, postcards, filmstrips or mini-magazines are flip yet irresistible, giving the sense that the '60s and '70s' legacy-questions of how to diversify who is making art and what art is made of-are yielding new and lasting results. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved