My House, My Paradise: The Construction of the Ideal Domestic Universe

Sophisticated, na•ve, refined, vulgar, mystical, hedonistic - each of these words will come to mind as you flip through the pages of this remarkable new book that gives entrŽe into the private realms of some of the world's most famous people. 'Home' is that intimate, closed, secret space where we impose our own laws and give shape to our own particular concept of the world.

My House, My Paradise is a collection of houses in which the 'residents-cum-creators' have devoted all of their ingenuity, energy and determination into constructing what they perceive to be the ideal domestic universe. Each defines a personal microcosm and all are exceptional, whatever the material means used to create them. These are dwellings in which a personal way of looking at the world has bee n relentlessly pursued; most are lifelong undertakings that grew and changed with the creator, and many are distinctly eccentric. They include Ludwig II of Bavaria's Linderhof, the CŽsar Manrique Villa in Lanzarote, Salvador Dali's villa in Spain, Edward James' villa in Mexico, Grandma Prisbrey's Bottle Village, Ian Hamilton Finlay's Little Sparta, Alex Jordan's house on the rock and William Randolph Hearst's Xanadu.