SPECK: A Curious Collection of Uncommon Things

by Peter Buchanan-Smith

In Speck, Peter Buchanan-Smith, Art Director of the New York Times Op-Ed page, asks artists, designers, lawyers, writers, collectors, and photographers to explore our obsessions with the small objects that loom large in our everyday lives.To Maira Kalman empties people's pocketbooks; Nicholas Blechman and Jesse Gordon trace the history of the oldest piece of dust; David Horrowitz catalogs manhole covers; and Peter Buchanan-Smith unearths a 1966 high school yearbook and transcribes the inscriptions ("To a real sweet and cute guy with a great personality. Remember English III").Speck also shows how "ordinary" people can fascinate as much as "ordinary" an interview with shoe shiner Harry Kitt, Manhattan's last practitioner of the dry-shine, photographs taken by a blind man on a sight-seeing tour, and a barber's extensive collection of earth, water, and air from around the world ask us to re-think our assumptions about the commonplace.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Design

224 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 2001

Reviews

[Lee]

I loved this book so much!

[Stephen]

This is a great collection of various artists and collectors. It illustrates what can happen when one is an explorer of the world looking closely, paying attention to the details which make up the whole. Absolutely a refreshing read.

[Michãel]

Interesting, my favorite was the interview with the man who shined shoes. Includes photos of strange collections of stuff including 10 years of lint from a dryer. Maybe my hoarder tendencies can be turned to art!

[Sarah]

A luscious collection of strangeness. I particularly liked the interview with the shoe shiner and the photographs of lipsticks.

[Megan]

This is a great art book, beginning to finish, about personal collections and appreciating the details of urban life.