A beautifully written and lushly illustrated guide to the lost world of the harem in the Ottoman Empire in the region of modern-day Turkey. Croutier draws upon not only historical records but also stories her grandmother and great-aunt shared with her to provide a full and fascinating account of the lives of women who were overseen, if not owned outright, by pashas and viziers. Chapters on costumes, the baths and food almost convince the reader that harem life wasn’t bad at all for the average odalisque, as long as the sultan didn’t go mad and decide to have you sewn into a bag and dumped with your sisters into the nearest river. Croutier also spills the beans on everything you’ve ever wondered about eunuchs. JW

Publisher: Abbeville
Paperback: 224 pages
Illustrated

Many of us have a tendency to rank Norman Rockwell with apple pie and Mayberry. Yet Rockwell’s vision of a homespun America-that-never-was is important. His work reveals an inherent need to supply the public with a meticulously envisioned, nostalgic vision of a quaint America. These magazine covers range from 1916 to the early 1960s, and display a stubborn reluctance on the artist’s part to adapt to the changes induced by progress and technology. Rockwell remains frozen in his own golden milieu. As with Twain and Dickens, with whom he is at times compared, the artist presents a lovable rogues gallery of classic character types—old musicians, kids dreaming of the sea, hoboes, quaint druggists, spooning sweethearts, small-town soldiers, choirboys, etc. Rockwell’s composition and attention to poignant human details set him apart from other artists who were merely first-rate technicians. CS

Publisher: Abbeville
Paperback: 356 pages
Illustrated

Offering encapsulated enchantment, snowdomes have provided a microcosm of the world as we knew it, or as we dreamed it could be. Snowdomes provides a charmed overview of the history and art, be it high or low, of this cultural fixture. Virtually anything can be depicted, celebrated or denigrated within the tidy confines of the snowdome. The introduction provides a brief, fact-filled history of snowdomes, from their first sightings in Paris in the 1870s to the German masters to their entry into the North American market.
Interesting facts revealed within this text are that some manufacturers use bone chips as snow and that many domes add antifreeze to the water to prevent freezing during shipping. Also noted is an episode in which the U.S. government imposed an embargo on snowdomes imported from Hong Kong during the 1960s when it was discovered that untreated and highly-polluted water directly from Hong Kong’s harbor was used to fill these domes.
In 95 full-color pages, Snowdomes depicts approximately 400 different snowdomes in all their glory. The domes are organized thematically: famous sights, advertising, special events, Christmas, the world at war, animals, childhood themes and more. An especially fine section is devoted to religious-themed snowdomes, which provide a virtual Bible under glass. Especially notable are a Dadaesque eye snowdome and one featuring a rooster atop a base which reads: “Nicarbazin Can Cut Mortality to Zero.” JAT

Publisher: Abbeville
Paperback: 96 pages
Illustrated

An excellent, thick little guide to the history and world of hot rods and custom cars. Crammed with 277 color photographs and accompanying text that take us from the “stripped and channeled” ‘28 Model A roadsters of the early ‘40’s to elaborate early ‘60s creations. Car freaks, artists and connoisseurs of pop culture will consider this book a must-have for the killer pix alone. The author does a fine job explaining why the hot rod is a “uniquely American phenomenon.” Also included is a really cool and potentially useful glossary that explains the difference between an “A-Bone,” a “beater,” a “T-bucket” and a “street rod.” CS

Publisher: Abbeville
Paperback: 336 pages
Illustrated

“The Marvelous—what Breton called ‘convulsive beauty’—is the great talismanic concept at the heart of Surrealist theory. And L’Amour Fou: Photography and Surrealism demonstrates that this key concept cannot be understood without first understanding photography as its model. Virtually all historical and critical discussions of Surrealism have been plagued by the impossibility of finding any stylistic coherence within the disparate array of Surrealism’s painting and sculpture. But once photography is admitted as the prime example of the Marvelous, these problems begin to be resolved… What this book stunningly and conclusively demonstrates is that Surrealism was acutely focused on the relationship between photography and imagination. Therefore, to explore Surrealist photography is also to open onto an exciting consideration of photography’s implications for modern consciousness itself… Erotic, disquieting, disorienting, humorous and, above all, exquisite photographs—many never before published—by Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp, René Magritte, Max Ernst, André Breton, Brassaï, Salvador Dali, André Kertész, Jacques-André Boiffard, Lee Miller and Hans Bellmer.”

Publisher: Abbeville
Paperback: 243 pages
Illustrated