Ann Hamilton: An Inventory of Objects. This item is unavailable.Ann Hamilton: An Inventory of Objects

Ann Hamilton: An Inventory of Objects is a major new publication of the work of one of today's most important and influential artists. The book is a comprehensive catalogue of Hamilton's object-based work from 1984 to 2006. The more than 130 color plates document photographs, sculpture, video, audio and language pieces (both unique and editioned), as well as multiples and prints. Many of the objects relate to the large-scale installations for which Hamilton is internationally known. Each object in the inventory is accompanied by a text by Joan Simon, who also contributes a significant new essay setting Hamilton's objects in critical context. The complete inventory of Hamilton's objects made over the past 20-plus years is reproduced in this essential publication, which also contains an extensive biography, bibliography and index. The book, designed by the Swedish designer Hans Cogne in conversation with Ann Hamilton, is a beautiful object in its own right and evokes many of the conceptual qualities of Hamilton's art.

This is the first comprehensive catalog of objects created by an artist who has received international acclaim for her time- and performance-based installations. The book chronicles the development of these objects and examines their symbiotic relationship to Hamilton's temporal works. Hamilton used many of the objects as components of installations but reinvented them as elements in new projects or as independent works of art. An example is the hide-like Toothpick Suit, which Hamilton created as a sculpture, donned as part of a performance and installation, then documented in a photograph. The objects in the inventory include sculptures, photographs, prints, and multimedia that span the artist's career from 1984, when she was a student at Yale, to 2006. Hamilton's choice of the word "inventory" places these objects within a developing continuum and serves as an analogy to process. Simon, curator at large for the Whitney Museum of American Art, provides the accompanying essay as well as a critical examination of each work within the inventory. Simon's analysis endows the inventory with substantial critical content. The book includes more than 250 images and an extensive chronology and bibliography. It is beautifully bound and designed, an object characteristic of Hamilton's spare yet sensual aesthetic. Summing Up: Essential.--Y D Hibben "Choice "