Customer Reviews

Light of India: A Conflagration of Indian Matchbox Art

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Warren Dotz's "Light of India: A conflagration of Indian matchbox art" is a fascinating little gift or coffee table book. It starts out exploring the origins of the matchbox industry in India, its practical and cultural place in history. From there it branches into an impressive exploration of the art that adorns Indian matchboxes--starting with those imported from other countries, and progressing through those made in India by Indian artists in later years.

While the images themselves are beautiful and fascinating to look at, every bit as fascinating is the discussion that goes with each section. The images on matchboxes changed with the times, reflecting cultural trends, history, politics, national hopes and fears, and more. What started out for me as a fun look at matchbox art became an engrossing read on Indian cultural heroes, Gandhi's work, religious beliefs and iconography, and even Indian wildlife, foods, and architecture.

This is small but bold little book. The collection of images of matchboxes are colourful, humourous, curious and extremely entertaining. A must have for anyone interested in Indian graphics.

Wonderful photos and information on Indian matchbook pictures through the years, including development of the art form. When I looked at the chapter titles in the table of contents, I said "that makes sense" again and again, as each chapter highlights a theme very tightly related to Indian culture, like Hindu gods, mangoes, tigers, elephants etc.

If you don't know Indian culture or history, you'll still enjoy the great and unusual pictures. It shows how much art can be squeezed into something so small, cheap and mundane!

Light of India has great pictures of matchbook artwork. I am inspired by the colors