Pilgrimage: 40 Small Paintings Mark Shields Grosvenor Gallery, London 2003 pp.48 ills 40 col. Small book format p/b Free (except for p & p) Readability: 2 Reference Use: 2 Design & Durability: 5 Quality of Plates: 3 This is a very attractively produced catalogue with card covers and good quality paper. It’s a pity that it’s not overly helpful as an introduction to this Northern Irish figurative painter. The illustrations are small and as the originals tend towards the monochromatic, it’s difficult to ‘read’ them clearly. This is a painter who would benefit from magnified details. There is no ISBN number, the introduction (presumably by the artist) is a somewhat disorganised jumble of quotations, and there is neither a CV nor a list of illustrations. n   Ronnie Hughes: Lines of Desire Ormeau Baths Gallery 2003. pp.36 ills 19 col. Card covers Broad octavo £5.00 €7.00 Readability: 4 Reference Use: 2 Design & Durability: 2 Quality of plates: 2 Contains a CV and an essay by Sherman Sam. As with any abstract artist, communicating anything about the paint surface requires fine photography, design and printing. Most of the images here communicate little beyond a generalised colour. Silage Paul Chidester & Helen O’Leary Self-published 2003 pp.28 ills 20 col. Small square format p/b Free (except for p & p) Readability: 0 Reference Use: 1 Design & Durability : 4 Quality of plates: 4 It’s difficult to see the point of a catalogue like this other than as an aide memoire to those who have already seen the work. There is no information whatsoever on the artists or the work (no CV, no list of plates) and indeed it’s impossible to know what the ‘work’ is. Are these photos documentation? The work itself? The utter disregard of even basic communication suggests that this is the equivalent of an author’s vanity publishing.   Michael Warren: Light Gravity and Distance Crawford Municipal Art Gallery Cork / Gandon Editions 2002 pp.88 ills 50 mainly in col. Tall broad octavo p/b. ISBN 0946641 099 €10.00 Readability: 5 Reference Use: 4 Design & Durability: 5 Quality of plates: 5 This is one of the admirable series of Crawford publications. It contains a very well-written and lucid essay by Peter Murray which briefly charts the artist’s life and work with well-chosen and beautifully printed illustrations. It’s an introduction rather than a monograph in that it seeks only to give a favourable view and doesn’t deal with the many and considerable negative views of Warren’s work. For some reason the list of illustrations does not include those between pages 77-84, and the bibliography is cursory. By the Way: Dara McGrath Draiocht 2003 pp.50 ills 19 double-page col h/b ISBN 0-9545582-0-0 €10.00 Readability: 4 Reference use:2 Design & Durability: 4 Quality of plates: 5 This contains a brief foreword and biographical note as well as a straightforward short essay by Fiona Kearney. McGrath was the winner of 2003 AIB prize and his photographs supposedly document ‘the changing landscape of Ireland’s national road network’ and equally supposedly are underpinned by planning and development issues. Strongly underpinned by formalist issues, I’d say. There is no list of illustrations but the book is handsomely produced. Pat Moran 1961-1992: A Retrospective Gandon Editions 2002 pp. 64 ills 60 col. Tall broad octavo format p/b ISBN 0948037 016 €10.00 Readability: 5 Reference Use: 2 Design & Durability: 5 Quality of plates: 4 Seemingly a publication to accompany a retrospective, although rather nicely printed, this looks more like a labour of love than a serious attempt to provide a retrospective book. There are four short essays, including one by Aidan Dunne, which are mainly anecdotal and chatty. There is no list of illustrations, no bibliography, and little to place the artist in any serious manner. Barrie Cooke: A Retrospective RHA 2003 pp.78 ills 40 col.Large format p/b ISBN 1-903875-13-7 €20.00 Readability: 5 Reference Use: 3 Design & Durability: 5 Quality of plates: 5 This is another elegantly produced volume from the RHA. The illustrations are excellent, the writings cursory. It includes a brief essay by Aidan Dunne (an appendage to his Douglas Hyde catalogue), a note plus poems by Heaney (all published before and two other re-published bits, a review by John Montague and an interview by Dermot Healy. There’s not much analysis of the work to be found but there is a CV and very brief biography. The list of exhibits does not tally with the work illustrated, so for reference use this is rather frustrating. The RHA does such a good job with these kinds of catalogues that it is a pity they don’t make the effort to ensure their reference value. Brian McAvera is a playwright and an art critic