Atlas of Contemporary Art for Use by Everyone

In the form of a geographic atlas, this volume initiates dialogue between art and other disciplines such as the sciences, sociology and politics. Four hundred pages of color images drawn from art, architecture and film are annotated with historical, thematic and iconographic information and a mosaic of texts formed from quotes by artists, scientists and intellectuals, as well as encyclopedic entries, art reviews and short biographies. An entry on "The Bizarre," for example, is illustrated with works by Paul McCarthy and Jake and Dinos Chapman. One of the goals of any atlas is to survey the world in order to better explore it--seeing and naming a phenomenon in the world is just as imperative as seeking to define the meaning of that phenomenon.