Mary Burke: Semi-detached Reflections Published by the artist 2004 pp 22 (unpaginated) square format card covers ills 13 col No ISBN number Free (except for p & p) Readability: 5 Reference Use: 1 Design & Durability: 4 Quality of Plates: 4 Why do artists and organisations publish catalogues that no one can track through the publication system? The basics of this catalogue are sound. Good colour illustrations, an excellent biographical cum bibliographical CV (though page numbers are not referenced for newspapers which makes life difficult for the researcher), a short succinct overview essay by Maebh O’Regan. Burke herself is an established artist who, for over twenty years, has made a speciality of suburban landscape in all its forms. The current work, not unlike a series produced by Victor Sloan in the early eighties, uses reflections/views as seen in or through a car. Interesting material but... . Cor Klaasen: A breath of fresh air Tineke Klaasen/R4 Arts Project Network 2004 pp 32 tall quarto p/b ills 7 b/w €5 ISBN 0954307925 Readability: 5 Reference Use: 5 Design & Durability: 5 Quality of Plates: 4 This catalogue was published on the occasion of a small retrospective, at the National Print Museum, which was curated by Ciaran Bennett, who also wrote the excellently contextualised essay. Klaasen was a Dutch printmaker and graphic designer who moved to Ireland in 1956 (Constance Short was his apprentice for a brief period and learnt his Bauhaus technique of linocutting). He worked primarily as an illustrator for book covers, LPs , calendars and the like, being one of the so-called ‘Dutch School of Dublin’. This is a model catalogue, although it’s a pity that a more representative range of his commercial work, especially the book covers and LPs, is not illustrated. Contains a brief biography, plus a list of works researched by Tineke Klaasen. Sophie Calle Prestel Verlag Munich-Berlin-London-New York 2003 pp 444 Tall wide octavo format h/b ills 500 col €74.00 ISBN 3-7913-3035-7 Readability: 3 Reference Use: 3 Design & Durability: 4 Quality of Plates: 4 This is essentially the catalogue of a mid-career retrospective of the French artist Sophie Calle (b. 1953) which took place at the Pompidou, and a version of which travelled to IMMA. Calle usually presents her work in terms of ‘chronicles’ and photographic installations, and her work has been a clear influence on many of the Brit Artists. The catalogue is exemplary—for the most part. It details each of her shows, gives diary entries, essays on the works, and a raft of appendices, including an outline catalogue raisonné, lists of solo shows, publications, articles and even a filmography. The design is feminine-cutsey (interleaved pink pages, half pages of overview work which are unreadable without a magnifiying glass and so forth) but the sheer range of detail is wholly commendable. What it lacks is a detailed index and especially cross-referenced essays, for the lack of which you have to keep turning to the contents page, and then flick through the relevant section until you find what you want. However, the artist gets exactly what she wants: substantial sections of her texts and subservient academics. Margherita Manzelli Charta Milan 2004 pp 244 small folio h/p ills 216 col €50.00 ISBN 88-8158-472-7 Readability: 3 Reference Use: 4 Design & Durability: 5 Quality of Plates: 5 This is an interesting comparison with the Sophie Calle catalogue. Both are substantial well-produced volumes, devoted to youngish artists who place themselves at the forefront of their work. Manzelli (b 1968, works in Milan) is a painter, though like Calle there is a strong performance quality to her work. Judging from the illustrations the paintings, mainly of young women, are like a cross between Francesco Clemente and David Salle. The book is organised as a halfway house between an artists’ book and a catalogue. Visually it’s much more attractive than the Calle volume, mainly because the design is less fussy and the illustrations are much larger and very well produced. Also, paradoxically, it’s easier to use as the illustrations are indexed. All text is in both Italian and English. The Robert Sellar Collection at Flowerfield Flowerfield Arts Centre Portstewart N.D [2004] pp 44 folio p/b ills 50 b/w No ISBN Free (except for p & p) Readability: 4 Reference Use: 3 Design & Durability: 5 Quality of Plates: 5 This is a useful oddity. Sellar seems to be a retired art teacher who has donated this collection of his own work, mainly prints in the shape of linocut or wood-engraving, to Flowerfield Arts Centre. There is a somewhat rambling introduction by Sellar himself which fills you in on his biographical background, though tells you little about his work, and then a list of the works, interleaved with illustrations, with brief notes on each. It’s set out, and probably aimed at, schoolchildren, and no bad thing at that as it gives clear, simple information about the printmaking process. No CV. J B Vallely Emer Gallery Belfast 2004 pp 24 large oblong format ills 29 col & 10 b/w No ISBN Free (except for p & p) Readability: 2 Reference Use: 2 Design & Durability: 5 Quality of Plates: 4 Well-produced on good quality coated paper with list of illustrations, brief intro, CV, and a weird bibliography that fails to mention publishers, dates or page numbers! Unpaginated, but very good reproductions. Brian McAvera is a playwright and art critic.