Published: April 2012

Publisher: Walter König

A handsomely produced volume would contradict the spirit of Kienholz: The Signs of the Times. From the book's cover, which features an incomprehensible detail of a poorly photographed sculpture and "KIENHOLZ" stamped in gold; to gratuitously pastel-tinted pages printed with bizarre typefaces; to an overabundance of snapshots of husband-and-wife team of Edward Kienholz and Nancy Reddin Kienholz; the monograph's cheesy design is perfectly suited to the aggressively vulgar Kienholzian oeuvre.

Published: April 2012

Publisher: J&L Books

ALTHOUGH MARTIN Kippenberger's musical achievements were negligible—some impromptu punk club performances and a handful of recordings featuring his energetic drumming or lugubrious baritone—he organized his life and career very much along the lines of a rock star's.

Published: February 2012

Publisher: Paper Monument

The contemporary art journal Paper Monument has published a delightful, useful book titled Draw it with your eyes closed: the art of the art assignment. The publication's editors, Dushko Petrovich and Roger White, asked a wide selection of art teachers (many of them established artists) "to tell us about art assignments: remarkable ones they had given, received, or just heard about." The book includes over 100 responses of varying length. Amidst the professional demands of art schools, these examples suggest training for the unexpected and capricious expectations of the real world.

Published: January 2012

Publisher: Farrar

Rosamond Bernier first came to my attention in 1977, when I was about to set out on a lecture tour through the U.S. on behalf of the Alliance Française. Several friends urged me to prepare by attending one of Bernier’s famed art talks at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, where she appeared six or seven times a year for four decades, ending in 2008.

Published: February 2012

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Yayoi Kusama reappeared on the international art scene in the early 1990s after two decades of relative obscurity. Ever since, she has seen her fame and critical acclaim grow as never before—along with speculations that her “mental illness” may be part of a lifelong publicity strategy.