All Creatures Great and Small

by Carl Haenlein, Kiki Smith

Book by Carl Haenlein, Kiki Smith

Genres: Art

148 pages, Hardcover

First published September 30, 1999

Reviews

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A look into one of Kiki Smith's exhibits.

[H. · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was published alongside a specific exhibition, so you can't expect much more than a brochure from this sort of book. That being said, I recognized the text quite intimately as just the sort of thing I would produce in an art criticism class the night before a major essay was due, by summoning the Muse of Complete and Utter Bull Shit. Whether there is or is not any real insight into the works of Kiki Smith therein, the essay was a true labor to read, putting more effort into a flowery tangle of words (that seemed to be in the cowardly interest of making what was actually being said highly impenetrable or at least vague, and thereby the author less vulnerable) than adding anything to the photographs of Smith's work. The photos are nice enough, but there are plenty of other easily accessible Kiki Smith art books with larger, better, and more plentiful images.