Southwest Books of the Year 2009: W. David Laird's Picks

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The Life and Work of Marjorie Reed

by Fillmore, Gary

Book - 2009

Two previous books about Reed concentrated on her paintings relating to the Butterfield Overland Stage and provided very little information about the arti...Show more Two previous books about Reed concentrated on her paintings relating to the Butterfield Overland Stage and provided very little information about the artist. This volume gives us everything: detailed biographical information as well as commentary on her art interspersed among the reproductions of more than four hundred of her colorful paintings and drawings. This is a magnificent tribute to a southwestern artist who is not nearly as well-known as she should be. Show less

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Land Arts of the American West

by Taylor, Chris

Book - 2009

It is impossible to adequately "review," in a few short sentences, what Taylor and Gilbert have done in this volume, which documents a multi-yea...Show more It is impossible to adequately "review," in a few short sentences, what Taylor and Gilbert have done in this volume, which documents a multi-year, creative experiment in both photos and words. The photos, about 200 of them and all in color, present the reader with such variety that it is often impossible to tell how they relate to the text, but each of them in some way can be related to earth/land. They range from the head and shoulders of a bearded man, who has had a mud bath, to a bearded man (not the same one)whose head and shoulders stick up out of a perfectly round hole in the ground. Then there is the scene showing about 20 individuals walking single-file around the perimeter of one of the dishes in the Very Large Array! And, whoa, Wupatki, the potash evaporation lakes near Wendover, Bingham Canyon Mine, etc. Introductory essays for the volume’s six sections set the scene and within each section are one or two analytical texts, such as J. J. Brody's look at Chaco Canyon and a bilingual interview with Hector Gallegos and Graciela Martinez de Gallegos titled "Pots, Cows, and Trains" (don't forget that Native American pottery is just another form of earth/land). Show less

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Some of the Dead Are Still Breathing

Living in the Future

by Bowden, Charles

Book - 2009

These essays, seven of them, have subjects that range far outside the Southwest (would you believe, on a boat in the north Pacific looking for neon squid)...Show more These essays, seven of them, have subjects that range far outside the Southwest (would you believe, on a boat in the north Pacific looking for neon squid) but in many ways Bowden is never far from his Tucson home. His writing here, as always, sparkles with observations that the reader sees, images that the reader understands, and attitudes that the reader feels. This, for example, from a chapter titled "Serpent" that is more or less about rattlesnakes: "I have noticed over the years that love of nature often leaves skid marks on the ground when it comes to snakes." Show less

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