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Labyrinths & Mazes: A Journey Through Art, Architecture, and Landscape
The labyrinth is one of the world's oldest symbols, and its meaning is often shrouded in myth and mystery or ties to religious rites. Today, this enigmatic form inspires artists to create their own interpretations in different, even unusual, ways, including by working with materials as varied as ice, snow, salt, wood, stone, glass, cement, and metal. This new collection features both classical examples and the best contemporary projects, showcasing work by artists, landscape artists, and architects from around the world. The diverse and stunning examples include pavement labyrinths of thirteenth-century French cathedrals, a historic English turf maze, Renaissance hedge mazes, and numerous present-day projects by artists and architects, including BIG, Chris Drury, Richard Fleischner, Dan Graham, Robert Irwin, Arata Isozaki, Robert Morris, Yoko Ono, and Billie Tsien and Tod Williams.
216 pages, Paperback
Published November 22, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 5, 2018
This book was a rating quandary for me, because I like it for one purpose, but it also disappointed and somewhat annoyed me. So, take my rating as more mixed than the three stars might suggest.
This is a successful picture book involving (with a couple of exceptions) architectural-scale mazes and labyrinths: meaning the kind you can walk through. That's a perfectly logical category, and my wife correctly surmised that I'd be interested by such a book. The pictures are generally clear, and there are also sometimes maps or accessory drawings for the more complex entries. The main overview picture is often supplemented by interior views, or informative angles. The grouping and ordering also makes quite good sense, (conceptual, rather than historical) and it occasionally jumps from ancient to modern in a delightful way.
I very much like the range of examples. There are mazes of stone (Chartres, Amiens, others), of sod, of wood, glass, steel, hedges (like the standard Renaissance garden maze), sunflowers, mirrors, ice, snow, and salt. That does not exhaust the list. One interesting feature is that several of the modern art-installation types play with interior windows, arches, and cutouts, adding to the dimensionality of the maze.
One fact that leapt out to me is the general absence of a third dimension to the path through the mazes, which reflects my experience as well. Garden mazes often have
a central raised observatory, and several of these have a place where one can overlook the maze (and there are the interesting ones where the walls get lower toward the center). But there's one built on a hillslope, and a Finnish one that's cut into snow so that one slides down the path rather than walking it, and that's about it. This isn't a complaint about the book, it's a remark on the tendency.
Clearly I'll have to use three-dimensional pathways in a story, as Borges's "The Library of Babel" does.
Along with a good selection, and good pictures, we get some useful basic information about each example. Location, designer, date of creation, materials. Also the size, which ranges from ten feet to acres. The author also tries to explain what the artist intended, or might have intended, and this includes quotes. I note that two of the labyrinths were inspired by Jorge Luis Borges, which I appreciated.
So, the virtue of the book is that it provides wonderful examples and a suggestive amount of information about them, and it pays attention to process. (We get some pictures of the construction process, and others of decay -- as with the ice and snow versions.)
What disappointed me was that the preface and introduction presented the book as more of a study of labyrinths than it turned out to be, and that there are regrettable episodes of meaningless artspeak. Yes, there's an excellent bibliography in the back, and yes, Tatarella undoubtedly knows a lot more about the history of these things than showed up on the page. But, in fact, the text is rather shallow and thin. Mazes can have interesting psychological effects, which is why so many have been created. But these are vaguely referred to, rather than discussed or analyzed. The introduction tantalizes with some very interesting ideas, but the book has a lot of white space where those ideas could have been discussed.
I will admit that I had to swallow hard at the very beginning of the book, because there on the page before the title page is an epigraph:
Solvitur ambulando.
(It is solved by walking.)
-- St. Augustine
Now that's a lovely old quote, and it certainly fits with the subject of mazes. But it isn't a quote from St. Augustine, it's the Latin translation of a quote about Diogenes the Cynic (the story is related by Diogenes Laërtius, and Diogenes doesn't actually speak, he walks), who would have said it in Greek, and said it several hundred years earlier. Except he didn't say it, it would seem. There is no evidence that St. Augustine said this; it's one of those "preacher quotes" I used to hear from pulpits and on religious radio stations when I was a minister's son. Like the one that B.C. means Before Caesar. Somebody took bad notes one day, or didn't check them, and told an audience that St. Augustine said this thing. Then it got published in an unfootnoted tertiary work, and folks grabbed hold of it, and now it's out there. You can tell that folks who tried to check the source (and couldn't) were affected by conscience, but couldn't let it go, so they attribute it to St. Augustine, but use phrases like, "Now St. Augustine probably wasn't the first to say it...". And now it has been made a mantra of folks doing the Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage.
Rule of writing: double-check your epigraphs, not using the Internet (though you may look at digitized copies of actual primary works via the Internet).
Anyway, her opening metaphorizes the journey of the scholarship on this book to the journey through a contemplative maze. I was expecting more journey in the book's text, but we mostly get individual stops.
One of the problems with sculptural art and architecture is that they are not spoken/written language. But critics like to make up phrases for how Art works, and a lot of the time it is painfully obvious that it's just blather. Saying that some iron slabs with coal dumped between them "encouraged visitors to examine the reasons behind their own path in life as they sought to reach its center" is purest malarky. I'd believe it if there were signs calling on the visitor to do so, but iron and coal ain't doing that work. Tell it to the Marines. Ditto for stuff like, "the essential humanist principle of the centrality of man and the question of how it can coexist with the concept of the void--the absence of meaning, as well as the relationship between the self and the body; the latter becomes a bridge from the inner world of the human soul to the outer world of space and the environment. In this sense, the labyrinth takes on new meaning by reflecting systems of oppression of the body through standardization." Care to turn that one into syllogisms that make any sense at all???
There were around a dozen of these blatherfests, where more white space would have been better than trying to make stuff up. But I can't blame her for the discussion of "Boolean transformations" (maybe a bad translation of "Boolean transforms"???) foisted on the public by Gijs Van Vaerenbergh (with Bollinger + Grohmann) to explain their very intriguing design in Genk, Belgium. I'm pretty sure they didn't really remember who or what Boole and Boolean logic/algebra actually were when they concocted their explanation. It's a great labyrinth, though.
So, upside: I'll be revisiting this for inspiration; I'll be teaching it later this month as an example of a source of story ideas.
Downside: Hits some really sour notes, and doesn't quite reach for what it could easily have been.
This is a successful picture book involving (with a couple of exceptions) architectural-scale mazes and labyrinths: meaning the kind you can walk through. That's a perfectly logical category, and my wife correctly surmised that I'd be interested by such a book. The pictures are generally clear, and there are also sometimes maps or accessory drawings for the more complex entries. The main overview picture is often supplemented by interior views, or informative angles. The grouping and ordering also makes quite good sense, (conceptual, rather than historical) and it occasionally jumps from ancient to modern in a delightful way.
I very much like the range of examples. There are mazes of stone (Chartres, Amiens, others), of sod, of wood, glass, steel, hedges (like the standard Renaissance garden maze), sunflowers, mirrors, ice, snow, and salt. That does not exhaust the list. One interesting feature is that several of the modern art-installation types play with interior windows, arches, and cutouts, adding to the dimensionality of the maze.
One fact that leapt out to me is the general absence of a third dimension to the path through the mazes, which reflects my experience as well. Garden mazes often have
a central raised observatory, and several of these have a place where one can overlook the maze (and there are the interesting ones where the walls get lower toward the center). But there's one built on a hillslope, and a Finnish one that's cut into snow so that one slides down the path rather than walking it, and that's about it. This isn't a complaint about the book, it's a remark on the tendency.
Clearly I'll have to use three-dimensional pathways in a story, as Borges's "The Library of Babel" does.
Along with a good selection, and good pictures, we get some useful basic information about each example. Location, designer, date of creation, materials. Also the size, which ranges from ten feet to acres. The author also tries to explain what the artist intended, or might have intended, and this includes quotes. I note that two of the labyrinths were inspired by Jorge Luis Borges, which I appreciated.
So, the virtue of the book is that it provides wonderful examples and a suggestive amount of information about them, and it pays attention to process. (We get some pictures of the construction process, and others of decay -- as with the ice and snow versions.)
What disappointed me was that the preface and introduction presented the book as more of a study of labyrinths than it turned out to be, and that there are regrettable episodes of meaningless artspeak. Yes, there's an excellent bibliography in the back, and yes, Tatarella undoubtedly knows a lot more about the history of these things than showed up on the page. But, in fact, the text is rather shallow and thin. Mazes can have interesting psychological effects, which is why so many have been created. But these are vaguely referred to, rather than discussed or analyzed. The introduction tantalizes with some very interesting ideas, but the book has a lot of white space where those ideas could have been discussed.
I will admit that I had to swallow hard at the very beginning of the book, because there on the page before the title page is an epigraph:
Solvitur ambulando.
(It is solved by walking.)
-- St. Augustine
Now that's a lovely old quote, and it certainly fits with the subject of mazes. But it isn't a quote from St. Augustine, it's the Latin translation of a quote about Diogenes the Cynic (the story is related by Diogenes Laërtius, and Diogenes doesn't actually speak, he walks), who would have said it in Greek, and said it several hundred years earlier. Except he didn't say it, it would seem. There is no evidence that St. Augustine said this; it's one of those "preacher quotes" I used to hear from pulpits and on religious radio stations when I was a minister's son. Like the one that B.C. means Before Caesar. Somebody took bad notes one day, or didn't check them, and told an audience that St. Augustine said this thing. Then it got published in an unfootnoted tertiary work, and folks grabbed hold of it, and now it's out there. You can tell that folks who tried to check the source (and couldn't) were affected by conscience, but couldn't let it go, so they attribute it to St. Augustine, but use phrases like, "Now St. Augustine probably wasn't the first to say it...". And now it has been made a mantra of folks doing the Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage.
Rule of writing: double-check your epigraphs, not using the Internet (though you may look at digitized copies of actual primary works via the Internet).
Anyway, her opening metaphorizes the journey of the scholarship on this book to the journey through a contemplative maze. I was expecting more journey in the book's text, but we mostly get individual stops.
One of the problems with sculptural art and architecture is that they are not spoken/written language. But critics like to make up phrases for how Art works, and a lot of the time it is painfully obvious that it's just blather. Saying that some iron slabs with coal dumped between them "encouraged visitors to examine the reasons behind their own path in life as they sought to reach its center" is purest malarky. I'd believe it if there were signs calling on the visitor to do so, but iron and coal ain't doing that work. Tell it to the Marines. Ditto for stuff like, "the essential humanist principle of the centrality of man and the question of how it can coexist with the concept of the void--the absence of meaning, as well as the relationship between the self and the body; the latter becomes a bridge from the inner world of the human soul to the outer world of space and the environment. In this sense, the labyrinth takes on new meaning by reflecting systems of oppression of the body through standardization." Care to turn that one into syllogisms that make any sense at all???
There were around a dozen of these blatherfests, where more white space would have been better than trying to make stuff up. But I can't blame her for the discussion of "Boolean transformations" (maybe a bad translation of "Boolean transforms"???) foisted on the public by Gijs Van Vaerenbergh (with Bollinger + Grohmann) to explain their very intriguing design in Genk, Belgium. I'm pretty sure they didn't really remember who or what Boole and Boolean logic/algebra actually were when they concocted their explanation. It's a great labyrinth, though.
So, upside: I'll be revisiting this for inspiration; I'll be teaching it later this month as an example of a source of story ideas.
Downside: Hits some really sour notes, and doesn't quite reach for what it could easily have been.
February 9, 2024
If you enjoy mazes, labyrinths, and art installations, this is the book for you! I just wish the physical book itself were larger like most art books so we could see the pictures more clearly. It would also help to be able to lay it open flat. The book reviews labyrinths throughout time all over the world, made of a variety of materials. Hedges, straw, stone, metal, wood, mirrors, recycled materials, salt, and even snow are used to build the mazes in this book. All of them are made to be walked through and interacted with.
I appreciated the author's commentary on each labyrinth, especially since some were built to be temporary art installations at exhibits that no longer exist. The text fills out what the photos can't communicate. I especially liked that she mentioned what visitors were likely to think and feel in the presence of the art and how it connected with the environment nearby. It is clear the author knows her subject and has done extensive research.
A wonderful book to just dip into, peruse at your leisure, or read straight through. Right now it's available at Daedalus Books for $10--a steal! I took the risk of buying it sight unseen, and I'm so glad I did!
I appreciated the author's commentary on each labyrinth, especially since some were built to be temporary art installations at exhibits that no longer exist. The text fills out what the photos can't communicate. I especially liked that she mentioned what visitors were likely to think and feel in the presence of the art and how it connected with the environment nearby. It is clear the author knows her subject and has done extensive research.
A wonderful book to just dip into, peruse at your leisure, or read straight through. Right now it's available at Daedalus Books for $10--a steal! I took the risk of buying it sight unseen, and I'm so glad I did!
August 2, 2023
Labyrinths and mazes are not just for the entertainment value - they can cause personal reflection. Reflection on a journey. A step forward in life. A challenge. Venturing into the unknown and finding a path that may lead to an exit or to another path. A freedom of making a choice.
The classic labyrinth or unicursal, has one path from the outside curving and twisting to the center.
Mazes - for the most part - have multiple paths, meandering into dead ends, raised portions, towers, and pavilions that users can climb in order to see the maze in its entirety. And maybe memorize the way out. A game - sometimes for adults, sometimes for children.
The author has researched labyrinths - from the classic Cretan and Roman through the medieval ages to the extensive Renaissance gardens which in many cases require extensive re-construction and replanting to the modern versions of glass, leaves, steel, concrete, snow/ice and the fall festival corn and sunflower mazes. Unfortunately, there were no examples of the ancient labyrinths and only the floors of the Chartres and Amiens Cathedrals to show the medieval versions. A few Renaissance - like the extensive Hampton Court maze - but it was mostly modern. Admittedly, some of the modern pushed the proverbial envelope regarding the definition of a maze/labyrinth like the one box-like display of a steel frame with 120 doors - 10 per side and the rest within allowing changes depending on which door is opened. And then there is the labyrinth at Villa Pisani
in Italy which is considered the most difficult one to solve - it even baffled Napoleon!
So if you enjoy a challenge, along with walking and traveling, maybe touring and exploring some mazes and labyrinths could be considered. Certainly, the extensive photos of all these lovely landscaping provides an appeal to me.
2023-047
The classic labyrinth or unicursal, has one path from the outside curving and twisting to the center.
Mazes - for the most part - have multiple paths, meandering into dead ends, raised portions, towers, and pavilions that users can climb in order to see the maze in its entirety. And maybe memorize the way out. A game - sometimes for adults, sometimes for children.
The author has researched labyrinths - from the classic Cretan and Roman through the medieval ages to the extensive Renaissance gardens which in many cases require extensive re-construction and replanting to the modern versions of glass, leaves, steel, concrete, snow/ice and the fall festival corn and sunflower mazes. Unfortunately, there were no examples of the ancient labyrinths and only the floors of the Chartres and Amiens Cathedrals to show the medieval versions. A few Renaissance - like the extensive Hampton Court maze - but it was mostly modern. Admittedly, some of the modern pushed the proverbial envelope regarding the definition of a maze/labyrinth like the one box-like display of a steel frame with 120 doors - 10 per side and the rest within allowing changes depending on which door is opened. And then there is the labyrinth at Villa Pisani
in Italy which is considered the most difficult one to solve - it even baffled Napoleon!
So if you enjoy a challenge, along with walking and traveling, maybe touring and exploring some mazes and labyrinths could be considered. Certainly, the extensive photos of all these lovely landscaping provides an appeal to me.
2023-047
January 13, 2017
Fascinating look at both historical and contemporary labyrinths and mazes. Fun to look through and makes me wish I could visit some of those places.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews