The Exquisite Book: 100 Artists Play a Collaborative Game [Hardcover]

Julia Rothman (Author), Jenny Volvovski (Author), Matt Lamothe (Author), Dave Eggers (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2010

In The Exquisite Book, one hundred indie artists play an ingenious version of the Exquisite Corpse drawing game. Each adorns a page with artworkhaving seen only the page of the artist immediately prior and using a single horizon line to connect the two. Some continue the "story" quite literally while others build on the previous page in more fanciful ways. This astonishing volume's format is as unique as its content, with each of the book's ten chapters residing on a ten-page accordion pull-out, allowing readers to view the art continuously. With an illustrated foreword by Dave Eggers, and art from such luminaries as James Jean and Jill Bliss, this charming book is, simply, exquisite.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A fantastically quirky little art book whose ideas and pages literally just keep unfolding and unfolding." --NPR

"...The Exquisite Book is nothing short of inspirational."
--Time Out Chicago

"...we love how it's a picture book for adults that is both creatively inspiring and incredibly engaging."
--Readymade

"The foreword by Dave Eggers (What is the What) is enough of a reason to buy this compelling and seriously cool work. What we want to know is: how did the publisher design it for the price?"
---The Weekly Review

"In our current world of straight-jacketed rationality almost to the point of insanity, The Exquisite Book launches us into the madness of possibility and the frightening potential of our own imagination."
--Big Think

About the Author

Julia Rothman, Jenny Volvovski, and Matt Lamothe are partners in Also Design. Julia is author of the popular blog Book-By-Its-Cover.com.

Dave Eggers is a writer and editor.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books (September 1, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811870901
• ISBN-13: 978-0811870900
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 7.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #238,426 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful and compelling, October 3, 2010

By 

kybrdplyr - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Exquisite Book: 100 Artists Play a Collaborative Game (Hardcover)

I tried to read this book from cover to cover, visually, and it was just not enough. I now display one fold out page per week or as long as is necessary to really see at what I am looking. This book fits the criteria for the kind of art I hang on my walls: it must be endlessly visually compelling and it must grab my heart. Add to that the intellectual curiosity of each artist's piece and this book becomes a mini-museum of delight. Congratulations on the concept and thank you.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You Will Love This, October 17, 2010

By 

Imagine This - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Exquisite Book: 100 Artists Play a Collaborative Game (Hardcover)

This book is so creative and smart. The illustrations are beautiful and will pull you in to discover what the connections are from one to the other. When I looked at it with a friend, I discovered that we each saw different connecting entry points and that made it ever more captivating. Dave Eggers introduction is so true, that however complicated, all our stories are in some way connected. This was a huge undertaking...a hundred contemporary artists participating by responding to a previous artist is done to perfection. The fold=out design was a perfect format. You will look at this over and over and then match the interview as to why the artists responded the way they did. Art teachers will especially want to try this with students and use the book as an example. The variety of ideas and the playfulness are refreshing and gorgeous.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very, very cool. You will not be disappointed!, March 10, 2011

By 

Douglas Bowker "Music Fan" (Salem, MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Exquisite Book: 100 Artists Play a Collaborative Game (Hardcover)

This book is not just thought provoking, it's also really fun! It is obvious most of the artists put a lot of time and creativity into their page, and I like the "chapter" themes the editors came up with. Over time I'm sure I will be looking up my favorites to see what kind of other work the various artists have done. The production quality is very good, especially for such a reasonable price, with good binding, folding and clear print quality throughout.

Granted, this book is not perfect, in that the editors definitely should have sent a few pictures back with a "read the rules and try again" note because some artists acted as if they just couldn't be bothered with actually lining up their painting with the page before. Seriously, that's the point of the whole book! Luckily, on balance most DID try to work with the previous images, and in many cases the connections made between multiple images is truly fantastic. Also luckily, even the paintings that are "on their own" are usually good works too. Still, it can be annoying to see a great series of pictures kind of come to a dead end when the next artist maybe uses one tiny line to "connect" and ignores all the interesting possibilities the previous image had!

I'd love to see this project done again in the future with other artists and designers; you really could never run out of things you could do with this concept!