What do you think?
Pippa Garner: Better Living Catalog
A witty and ingenious parody of American consumer goods―from a wristband that measures social success to shoes that help you diet Pippa Garner’s (born 1942) Better Living Catalog , originally published in 1982, takes the form of a mail-order catalog featuring clever, whimsical inventions that parody consumer goods and America’s obsession with ingenuity, efficiency, leisure and comfort. These works, which were made as prototypes and photographed for the publication, include the Reactiononometer, a portable wristband that instantly measures social success; the Digital Diet Loafers, which display the wearer’s weight with every step; and other items promising financial solvency (the controlled cash flow Autowallet) or mess-free companionship (the Pet-a-Vision TV console).
The Better Living Catalog was a pop hit when it was published, earning Garner spots on nighttime TV talk shows and attention from magazines such as Vogue and Rolling Stone . The works still resonate today, finding their analogue in many consumer products and―in the case of the High Heel Skates―even appearing unattributed in the runway collection of a major fashion brand. Around the time that the Better Living Catalog was published, Garner began her gender transition, which she has characterized as an artistic project with conceptual parallels to the altered consumer goods she has continued to create since the 1970s. This previously rare gem of an artist’s book is one of Garner’s few works to become widely available.
The Better Living Catalog was a pop hit when it was published, earning Garner spots on nighttime TV talk shows and attention from magazines such as Vogue and Rolling Stone . The works still resonate today, finding their analogue in many consumer products and―in the case of the High Heel Skates―even appearing unattributed in the runway collection of a major fashion brand. Around the time that the Better Living Catalog was published, Garner began her gender transition, which she has characterized as an artistic project with conceptual parallels to the altered consumer goods she has continued to create since the 1970s. This previously rare gem of an artist’s book is one of Garner’s few works to become widely available.
94 pages, Paperback
Published July 18, 2023
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 23, 2023
Occupying a place somewhere between Hammacher Schlemmer and Carol Wright catalogs hawking items of dubious aesthetic and technical value, the inventor and artist Philip Garner’s Better Living Catalog compiles profiles of 62 impractical gadgets designed with user convenience in mind. Most of the items depicted remind me of inventions some of my freshmen engineering students come up with—nothing anybody with a scintilla of sense would buy, but cobbled together a la Rube Goldberg just to see if they can transform their half-baked ideas into something functional. I’ve often smugly thought to myself that C-average students end up in dildonics—the design of sex toys—but Garner shows that the world of questionable goods is even broader than I originally imagined.
For more of my reviews, please see https://www.thebookbeat.com/backroom/...
For more of my reviews, please see https://www.thebookbeat.com/backroom/...
June 10, 2026
Pippa Garner's Better Living Catalog is the kind of book that begs to live on a coffee table, ready to be picked up and flipped through by curious visitors. It would make an excellent gift for anyone interested in contemporary art, design, photography, or the strange space where all three overlap.
What I loved most was the visual language of the book. The photography and layouts draw heavily from mid-century modern catalogs and advertising, creating a convincing world of speculative consumer products that feels both familiar and delightfully absurd. Some inventions appear so polished and professionally fabricated that they could have rolled straight off an assembly line. Others embrace a more playful DIY spirit—the Walkie Taco, for example, relies on hand-drawn details, cardboard cutouts, and black Sharpie markings that feel intentionally homemade and mischievous.
Rather than feeling inconsistent, that oscillation between high-end industrial design and cheeky improvisation became one of the book's strengths. Most of the objects are presented with enough care and functionality that I found myself wondering about Garner's process. Did the concept arrive first and demand a form, or did the act of modifying and inventing objects generate the ideas? The book continually blurs the line between practical design, satire, performance, and sculpture.
More than a collection of individual works, Better Living Catalog feels like a complete world—one governed by its own logic, aesthetics, and consumer desires. It's funny, inventive, and surprisingly immersive. I finished it wanting to know more about Garner as an artist and thinking differently about the objects that surround us every day.
What I loved most was the visual language of the book. The photography and layouts draw heavily from mid-century modern catalogs and advertising, creating a convincing world of speculative consumer products that feels both familiar and delightfully absurd. Some inventions appear so polished and professionally fabricated that they could have rolled straight off an assembly line. Others embrace a more playful DIY spirit—the Walkie Taco, for example, relies on hand-drawn details, cardboard cutouts, and black Sharpie markings that feel intentionally homemade and mischievous.
Rather than feeling inconsistent, that oscillation between high-end industrial design and cheeky improvisation became one of the book's strengths. Most of the objects are presented with enough care and functionality that I found myself wondering about Garner's process. Did the concept arrive first and demand a form, or did the act of modifying and inventing objects generate the ideas? The book continually blurs the line between practical design, satire, performance, and sculpture.
More than a collection of individual works, Better Living Catalog feels like a complete world—one governed by its own logic, aesthetics, and consumer desires. It's funny, inventive, and surprisingly immersive. I finished it wanting to know more about Garner as an artist and thinking differently about the objects that surround us every day.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews