**Update. Ok, well, now I feel guilty for writing such a critical review---I wrote in haste and suppose it's possible that hyperbole got the better of me. I want to reiterate that I find Sharon Montrose's work to be amazing; I actually wish that I could wallpaper my office in her prints. My reason for the lackluster review is that I was SO excited to receive this book, thinking it would showcase her work in larger scale. My problem for having different expectations. To that end, if you realize that you're going to be receiving a journal sized, intimate look at her work, then order away and enjoy. Otherwise, go to her website and buys lots of full size prints.**
I'm a huge fan of Sharon Montrose's work, but Menagerie is a true disappointment. The foremost directive of the book seems to be to make sure that no one can buy it in order to pull it apart for prints. Understandable, but I wish that the publisher, or Ms. Montrose, or whoever made the decisions about this book, would've had more confidence in her work.
The majority of the content is pictures of prints, i.e, a photo of one her prints, framed on a wall, from about 10 feet away. So, you can't even see the detail in many of her wonderful shots. Also, the book itself is small--the pages are basically 5x8's, which means that many of her more stunning photos are chopped up by the book's spine (most egregiously with the pink flamingo). Menagerie would be beyond stunning if it had a simpler format to match her simple backdrops, and if the pictures filled the page. Trust me, I would still buy prints separately!
Overall, I think the book could've worked, even in its overly art-directed format, IF it was much larger sized. Then, you could really get the scale of her photos. As it is, I'm squinting to see detail, and essentially bummed out that these gorgeous photographs have been diminished by kitsch.
