Horace Mann - Spring 2017 - 41

Bookshelf

head constructions and gear, headdresses,
prosthetics and helmets by artists, designers,
inventors and scientists, as well as technological extensions into space. Conceptual topics
include surrealistic juxtapositions of objects
and the head; gender, ritual and identity in
contemporary art hair and hair constructions;
and conceptual projects that highlight, analyse
or deny the internal or perceived functioning
of the head and brain. SYX had inauspicious
origins. In March 2012 Schwartzman was
involved in an airplane crash on the way to a
book talk. The wing of her Delta MD-80
knocked over a shuttle bus at over 150 miles
per hour while landing in Detroit. Luckily no
one was hurt. But the incident sparked the
author's investigation of whether pilots feel the
width of their wings and her thought that, if so,
was the head effectively approximately 150
feet wide? This was the catalyst for SYX: to look
across art practices and contemporary
culture at all ways of extending the head into
space, and to move headlong into the future.
The Poison Tree, a Memoir
By Henry Schvey, Ph.D. '65
Walrus Publishing, September 6, 2016
Growing up in his
father's looming
shadow, Prof. Henry I.
Schvey '65 wondered if
he was doomed to
repeat the past and
make the same
mistakes his father
made. Would he
succumb to the drive
for domination and transform his own world
into one colored by fear, domestic violence,
infidelity, and spousal abuse? Schvey grew up
in New York as his father rose to the pinnacle
of success in global finance. But he describes
his father's success as being paid for with the
currency of intimidation that he wore with the
braggadocio of a man with an outsized ego
who didn't care who he stepped on to get to
the top-including his son. Schvey eschewed
his father's career and, instead, pursued a
Master of Arts in Western European Studies,
a doctorate in comparative literature, and
became a professor at Leiden University,
Netherlands. There he founded the Leiden
English Speaking Theater before returning to
the U.S. and becoming Chair of the
Performing Arts Department at Washington
University from 1987 to 2007. Schvey's memoir
is a study of his relationship with his father, an
illumination of the secret life of a man who

was powerful, highly respected, and greatly
feared, and a journey-both sad and tragicomic-that ultimately leads to forgiveness.
"Keenly felt and elegantly written, this is a
moving and sad account of a family that
despite-or perhaps because of-all its
power and wealth was profoundly troubled.
Their very humanness makes the book all the
more tragic, touching, and affecting," wrote
Kirkus Reviews.
Far and Away:
Reporting from the Brink of Change,
Seven Continents, Twenty-Five Years
By Andrew Solomon, Ph.D. '81
Scribner, April 19, 2016
In Far and Away:
Reporting from the
Brink of Change, Seven
Continents, Twenty-Five
Years Andrew Solomon,
Ph.D. '81, winner of the
National Book Award
and the National Book
Critics Circle Award,
brings a riveting
collection of essays about places in dramatic
transition. The anthology collects Dr.
Solomon's writings about places undergoing
seismic shifts-political, cultural, and spiritual.
Chronicling his stint on the barricades in
Moscow in 1991, when he joined artists in
resisting the coup the failure of which ended
the Soviet Union, his 2002 account of the
rebirth of culture in Afghanistan following the
fall of the Taliban, his insightful appraisal of a
Myanmar steeped in contradictions as it
slowly, fitfully pushed toward freedom, and
many other stories of profound upheaval, this
book provides a unique window onto the very
idea of social change. With his signature
brilliance and compassion, Dr. Solomon, who is
also a Professor of Clinical Psychology at
Columbia University Medical Center, demonstrates how history is altered by individuals,
and how personal identities are altered when
governments change. Far and Away takes a
magnificent journey into the heart of extraordinarily diverse experiences, yet Dr. Solomon
finds a common humanity wherever he travels.
"This is a beautiful book, inspired by love of
'away' and uncertainty about 'home,' a celebration of freedom which valuably warns that
freedom must sometimes be learned. Much
more than 'travel writing,' it's a portrait of our
world, made by someone who has been there,"
wrote Salman Rushdie. "You will not only know
the world better after having seen it through

Solomon's eyes, you will also care about it
more," wrote author Elizabeth Gilbert.
Unbound: A Reader
By Alice Taranto '11
Self-published in 2016
Unbound: A Reader
edited by Alice Taranto
'11, is a comprehensive
survey of eight historical
and nine contemporary
serial artists' publications. The serial
publishing projects in
Unbound are themselves art/design-the publication is the art,
rather than the publications covering art or
containing reviews. Unbound is made in the
style of art history course book readers with a
heterogeneous layout that combines new
content with annotated sources. These include
key passages from the few other major books
on the topic of artists' publications and articles
germane to the themes of distribution, the
political nature of publishing, and unusual
artists' works. The 17 publishing projects
profiled in Unbound share certain qualities.
They: are periodical/serial, not one-offs; range
from the mid-1950s to the present; were
generally curated/edited/organized by one
person or a small group; tend to be experimental in format (not limited to bound printed
matter); were contributed to by multiple
artists; were intended for public distribution,
although generally with limited circulation; and
were independently funded/operated. Rather
than for profit, the goal was often creative
expression and cultural advancement.
Unbound also includes three original interviews with the artist-editors behind Printed
Web, Works That Work, and This is a magazine.
The back of the reader has an appendix of
resources, including where to find these
unusual works around the world and tools to
start one's own project. Taranto, a New
York-based multidisciplinary graphic artist
wrote, "The book was created primarily as an
educational reader for those interested in
serial artists' publications, those who enjoy
learning about atypical artists' projects, are an
art/publishing history enthusiast, a graphic
designer, writer, artist, art/design student,
librarian, or just a friend of Alice's." (Unbound
was acquired by the MoMA Library, Walker Art
Center Archives + Library, and the Yale
University Haas Arts Library Special Collections
amongst others. Available from Printed Matter
in the US and Art Metropole in Canada.)
Horace Mann Magazine Spring 2017

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Horace Mann - Spring 2017