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1000 Extra/Ordinary Objects

edited by Colors Magazine.
Taschen America, New York, NY, U.S.A., 2001.
ISBN: 3-8228-5820-X.
Reviewed by Roy R. Behrens, 2022 X Avenue, Dysart, IA 52224-9767, U.S.A.
E-mail: ballast@netins.net


This book was made for paging through, not for extended reading. It is a flashy catalog of bizarre yet believably functional stuff, such as an Ethiopian ear-cleaning spoon; paper made from recycled elephant dung; two mittens blending into one so that Norwegian lovers can hold hands even in winter; fried bull's testicles (a delicacy for males, this book claims, in South America); a scrap metal briefcase from Senegal, its surface decorated with flattened soda cans and old newspapers; Japanese toilet paper with English language lessons printed on it; and spiked boots for cowboy golfers. In addition to these, there are hundreds of other useful unfamiliar tools, curios, gadgets, and so on from throughout the world, each with a color illustration and a brief description. Appropriately, this baffling and often amusing array of "artifacts of cultural identity" was co-produced by Colors Magazine (whose motto is "diversity is good"), and Taschen, a German book publisher known for the quality and affordability of its art- and design-related titles-books that, like the objects here, are both eccentric and extraordinary. For other books by Taschen, see www.taschen.com.

(Reprinted by permission from Ballast Quarterly Review, Vol. 16, No. 4, Summer 2001.)

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Updated 7 August 2001.




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