Polyhedra Primer by Peter Pearce and Susan Price (review)

78 Books Studley is an artist who makes drawi.ngs, calli~raph~c wor~s, innovative prints and watercolors USing matenals (including paper) and implements that he has made himsel~. His ?ook is an amply illustrated, carefully written account. giving I~StruC­ tions for making and employing those matenals and Implements . Among the illustrations are black and white photographic reproductions of a few examples of his.artworks.. His line drawings and photographs reveal his deep fascination with hand tools of good functional design. I believe that many artists, even those who are much less interested in their tools than he, will, after reading his book, become Infused with a desire to make some of the tools he discusses. These include: pens from stalks of bamboo, cat tails, reeds and rushes; quill pens from goose, raven, swan and turkey feat~­ ers; paint brushes of hair of various kinds; shredded-fabnl bamboo brushes; silverpoint tools; etching tools and brayers. Many of these may be made at a cost that is a fraction of the cost of those offered in art supply shops. In many cases they are as good as or better than commercial products, and oftentimes their construction can be modified to provide effects that cannot be obtained with their commercial counterparts . The manual skill required to make them probably does not exceed that possessed by most artists. Instructions are given for making charcoal sticks, inks, wax crayons and pastels. A chapter is devoted to papermaking by hand, but, for a more extensive survey, readers are invited to consult his book, The Art and Craft ofHandmade Paper (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1977). The book concludes with a bibliography listing 30 pertinent books for reference, a listing of 10 sources (U.S.A.) of supplies (Oriental artists' materials, quills, specialty papers, hard-to-find hardware items, papermaking felts, etc.) and a detailed index. I believe that, in practical books for artists, authors should make a definite effort to remind artists of the health and safety hazards of art materials, even though such reminders may be a slight digression from their topic. A sentence or two on safety in the author's discussion on solvent containers (p. 116) would, I think be desirable, as would be the inclusion of the following books in his bibliography: Michael McCann, Health Hazards Manual for Artists (New York: The Foundation for the Community of Artists, 1975) [cf. Books, Leonardo 10, 172 (1977)] and Gail C. Barazani, Safe Practices in the Arts & Crafts: A Studio Guide (New York: College Art Assn., 1978). Polyhedra Primer. Peter Pearce and Susan Price. Van Nostrand Reinhold, Wokingham, England, 1978. 134 pp., illus. Paper, £4.45. As the authors state in their Preface, the book 'is an illustrated glossary organized, not alphabetically, but in a hierarchical sequence ...'. An idea of the sequence can be gained from the following seven chapters of the book: Polygons, Tessellations, Polyhedra, Dual Polyhedra, Space Filling, Open Packings and Constructions. Definitions are accompanied by clear line drawings. In addition there are clearly illustrated discussions of, for example , mirror symmetry, rotational symmetry, tiling patterns, Euler's theorems for tessellations and for polyhedra. The final chapter gives simple directions for making 2-dimensional geometric constructions with the aid of a compass and ruler. Several pages are devoted to instructions for making paper and plastic polyhedra models. This inexpensive informative book is highly recommended to those artists interested in the use of geometrical shapes and forms. It should be available as a reference book in art libraries. Digital Interfacing with an Analog World. Joseph J. Carr. Tab Books, Blue Ridge Summit, Penn., U.S.A., 1978. Paper, $8.95. Reviewed by Dale C. Sparks* *Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, P.O. Box 1663, Los Alamos, NM 87545, U.S.A. This book was written for electronics oriented persons with some mathematics background. One does not have to be an electrical engineer to use many of the ideas presented. Given some linear integrated circuit parts, power supplies and effort, some useful experiments and results can be obtained. The first seven chapters are most useful in explaining how circuits function in a practical sense. The examples are clear and easy to follow. The author...