Palm Desert [Hardcover]

Rudy VanderLans (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1999

Palm Desert is the first book of photographs by Emigre magazine creator Rudy VanderLans. It is based on the music and lyrics of Los Angeles-based composer Van Dyke Parks and pays tribute to both Parks and Southern California. Somewhere between fact, fantasy and fiction, Palm Desert strives to echo Parks's creative approach of blending classical, historical, vernacular and environmental themes. The result is a curious mix of tribute, documentary photography, impressionism, and experimental music review.

The book also includes a bonus music CD containing the original track Palm Desert by Van Dyke Parks, as well as three adaptations by Emigre recording artists Itchy Pet, Honey Barbara, and Elliott Peter Earls. Playing time 21 minutes. 96 pages, 5.5 x 8.5 inches, 75 full color and duotone photographs, cloth cover with blind emboss, sewn and case bound, with a CD attached in the back.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"It's a beautiful tribute, a work of art in and of itself." -- Open Sky

"The startling contrast between the desert-alone and the desert-intervened is made clear in Vanderlans's color photographs." -- The Journal of Artists Books

It is brilliant. An inspiring visual journey through the Palm Desert area of California, undertaken by someone who obviously cares for the works of Van Dyke Parks. Accessible to all who have been touched by Parks's surrealist lyrics and imagery. Beyond that, Palm Desert is a great artistic statement that can easily stand on its own. -- Songcycler website

It's an evocative mix of the ethereal, regal, mythical and humane aspects of the Southern California landscape. The elegant simplicity of the entire presentation brings to mind the work of Ed Ruscha. -- Pulse!

The type, illustrations, paper, binding, and size all contribute to making this book a pleasure to look at and hold. The typography is a quiet lesson in proportion. -- Lingua Franca

VanderLanss introductory essay is quite touching and his photographs combine the precision and obliqueness of their source material. There are several books that need writing on Van Dyke Parks and this may well be one of them. -- Eye magazine

About the Author

Rudy VanderLans is the editor and designer of Emigre magazine, a quarterly journal dedicated to graphic design. Together with his wife, type designer Zuzana Licko, Emigre has won the 1994 Chrysler Award for Innovation in Design, the 1997 Gold Medal Award of the American Institute of Graphic Arts, and the 1998 International Charles Nypels Award for Innovation in typography. Their work is in the permanent collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Cooper-Hewitt Museum of Design in New York, and the National Design Museum in London.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 96 pages
• Publisher: Emigre Inc (June 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0966940903
• ISBN-13: 978-0966940909
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,123,308 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A multimedial Emigré experience., November 23, 2000

By 

Witold Riedel (Brooklyn, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Palm Desert (Hardcover)

"Palm Desert" was originally designed to accompany a CD containing loose adaptations of one of Van Dyke Park's musical compositions from the 1968 Warner Brothers release "Song Cycle". The original recording of "Palm Desert" is track one on the CD in the book. (The other three, quite experimental tracks are by "Itchy Pet", "Honey Barbara" and "Elliot Peter Earls") The designer of this publication is Rudy VanderLans, one of the guiding lights of the design community throughout the last 15 years or so, so the result is a very handsom, very, very well crafted book, with beautiful pictures taken by VanderLans on his search for the visual sources which might have inspired Van Dyke Park when writing his musical marvels. (The book has the subtitle: "A book by Rudy VanderLans Based on Lyrics and Music by Van Dyke Park") As an Emigré project, the book is set using fonts by Zuzana Licko (Tarzana and Filosofia). I bought this book by accident through the Emigré catalogue and even though it seemed a bit odd at first to look at photographs of a Desert Community being slowly converted into a lucrative piece of real estate, while listening to unusual yet marvelous music, I slowly realized how good this "book" really was, and how much better it became with every "read". While there might be better ways to discover the work of Rudy VanderLans and Zuzana Licko, this piece certainly is an eye/ear opener. It can help to awake a curiosity. And what else is there that one should expect from a good publication... or a good work of art, or a good friend.