[close] Out of the fantasies that enriched an often reclusive life, the enigmatic American artist Joseph Cornell (1903-1972) created a world of enchantment with his famed shadow boxes and collages. Using common objects such as cordial glasses, marbles, and mirrors, Cornell beckons us into a realm vivid with half-remembered dreams, at once magical and tantalizingly, nostalgically "home." His work reminds us of the strangeness of the familiar, the odd familiarity of the strange, and the final mysteriousness of the world we thought we knew.

The respected art historian Diane Waldman probes the elusive imagery that marks Cornell's work. Interviews with Cornell and his family and access to the artist's letters and papers inform her text. With Cornell's popularity soaring, this richly illustrated book—one of the few to cover his entire career—will be essential reading. [close]