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Books 81 technology. He cites Leonardo qa Vinci's pioneering efforts at the interface of art, science and technology and sees the work of Marcel Duchamp as a seminal 20th-century extension. Glusberg's semiotic applications, both here and in the other book, are intriguing, but his aphoristic and manifesto-like style (also the style in Berger's paper) is a problem. Perhaps in the future his interesting ideas will receive fuller more coherent expression. The discussion in the second book brings together the contributions (over half in French) of 10 knowledgeable critics. Despite the problems inherent in dealing with Performance Art, this anthology supercedes many of its precursors. In a tri-lingual Introduction, Alexandre Cirici notes the multi-disciplinary character of Performance Art and the new more participative demands it makes on audiences. He points out the inadequacy of traditional art critical canons in light of this new form and stresses the need to view the problem as ritual, thereby drawing insight from the social sciences. Gregory Battock deals with Body Art. He criticizes several canonical assumptions, especially the 'art for art's sake' point of view that holds a work of art must be seen only as a self-referencing phenomenon. He notes that a medium may be interesting and imaginatively used by artists if they do not try to have it be something that it is not. His conjectural history of Body Art has a fair degree of anthropological plausibility. To mention just a few of the remaining papers: Dany Bloch pays homage to Francois Pluchart's contribution to Body Art; Dorfles deals with the role of the public in Performance Art; and Glusberg tries to further develop his semiotic approach to the study of Performance Art as ritual. Most of the contributors see continuity between Performance Art and more traditional modes of expression, and they recognize that just as this artform brings together different artistic venues, so must analyses of it draw from several critical sources. With a few exceptions, we found that the authors in both books have an inadequate command of their sources in many disciplines. However this shortcoming must be tempered with the understanding that here one has a group of critics confronted with artistic developments to deal with using traditional methods of analysis. Rather than bending these methods or looking askance at the new developments, the contributors have sought to re-educate themselves in light of the task. We admire their preliminary efforts and readers must be patient for the more refined analyses that will surely follow. Pottery Form. Daniel Rhodes. Photographs by Thomas Liden. Pitman, London, 1978. 243 pp., ilIus. £7.95. (Chilton, Radnor, Philadelphia, 1976) Reviewed by Jehangir Bhownagary* He has done it again. Teacher and author Rhodes (I prefer to say true potter and sculptor) has produced another 'wheel-side bible'. This time far more than a manual. His fifth book left little to be desired. He had gently chided me in a letter to the editor of Leonardo for requiring philosophical insights of him, hoping he would be forgiven 'for not working in philosophical insights or serene assurance. There isn't much serenity or assurance for most readers when it comes to clay, glazes and kilns.' Yet now, in his latest book, these insights are just what he offers-that I regard as lambent dew drops shining from the undergrowth of his thought and experience. Many potters go on 'potting' away merrily, learning little from their failures and successes. They enjoy their moments with clay, which is as I think it should be, but they forget to digest, to assimilate and, therefore, to understand more fully what they are doing. Here, after years of hard work, Rhodes gives one the quintessence of how he has lived and is 'living' pottery. His text is done simply, with short phrases, nothing over-blown or written for effect but quietly, wisely, with the confidence of knowing-shaping potters' thoughts and feelings gently along, just as potters feel and work their clay-inessentials shorn away by deep, assimilated, artistic experience. *97 Rue Gallieni, 92100 Boulogne sur Seine, France. I find also magic in the illustrations-a most helpful and beautiful bonus-pots...

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