Margins
Arboretum book cover
Arboretum
2006
First Published
4.01
Average Rating
206
Number of Pages

For over twenty-five years, David Byrne has focused his unique genius upon forms as diverse as disco, architectural photography, and PowerPoint. Now he presents what may be his most personal work to date, a collection of drawings and diagrams mapping the strange corners of his mental landscape. It's an eclectic blend of faux science, automatic writing, satire, and an attempt to find connections where none were thought to exist—-a sort of self-therapy, allowing the hand to say what the voice cannot. Irrational logic, it's sometimes called. It's the application of logical scientific rigor and form to basically irrational premises. To proceed, carefully and deliberately, from nonsense, with a straight face, often arriving at a new kind of sense. The world keeps opening up, unfolding, and just when we expect it to be closed—to be a sealed, sensible box—it shows us something completely surprising. Byrne's enigmatic, enchanting collection teaches us that there is absolutely no reason to discount anything, of any type, anywhere.

Avg Rating
4.01
Number of Ratings
371
5 STARS
36%
4 STARS
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3 STARS
18%
2 STARS
6%
1 STARS
2%
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Author

David Byrne
David Byrne
Author · 9 books

A cofounder of the musical group Talking Heads, David Byrne has also released several solo albums in addition to collaborating with such noted artists as Twyla Tharp, Robert Wilson, and Brian Eno. His art includes photography and installation works and has been published in five books. He lives in New York and he recently added some new bike racks of his own design around town, thanks to the Department of Transportation. Photo © Catalina Kulczar-Marin

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