BOOK: The Three Incestuous Sisters - Audrey Niffenegger

Title: The Three Incestuous Sisters
Author: Audrey Niffenegger
Genre: Visual Novel (art)
Publisher: Random House (2004)
Pages: Hardcover, 176
Language: English
Rating: 8/10
Summary: A novel in pictures about three sisters and their complicated relationship with each other and the man that shows up in their lives.

Review
Now Audrey Niffenegger is worldfamous for her novel The Time Traveler's Wife, but before she wrote that, she designed this huge artbook with a story, that she made and published with her friends. It's been rereleased after her breakthrough, but still hard to find. I'm glad I found it in a bookstore while I was in Iceland.
The illustrations cover the whole of the right page, while on the left are a few lines of text. The paintings have a primitive style and limited colours, which add to the gloom and doom of the story about the three sisters who fight to the death after a man comes into their lives.
I didn't catch the incestuous part of the title, but it is a rather messy story. All in all it fits with the Niffenegger books I already owned; stories about women who know what they want.
I like it.

BOOK: The Boy - Germaine Greer

Title: De Jongen (The Boy)
Author: Germaine Greer
Genre: Art, History
Publisher: Meulenhoff 2003
Pages: Paperback, 256
Language: Dutch (translated from English)
Rating: 6/10 (text) 8/10 (photos)
Summary: Essay about the different depictions of boys and young men in art through the ages; from the Roman era and the Middle Ages to modern day paintings and statues.

Review
I confess I bought this book because of the beautiful boy on the cover and the promise of more images of glorious men inside. That kind of proves Greer's point about the changed perception of men in art, which is only recently accepted as titillating for women. In the past, art was meant for and made by men, not to arouse but to admire (and possibly inspire). At least that's what I understood to be the main conclusion of this book.
Greer's language is rather scientific and requires a basic knowledge of arthistory. I've only had some arthistory in school and can't really judge her essay based on that, so I won't. I did find the writing a bit messy, but the book is filled with loads of beautiful paintings to compare or simply enjoy.
All in all it took me nearly two years to finish reading the whole book, but only looking at the pictures would have taken me less time and would have probably given me the same amount of satisfaction (maybe even more;).

BOOK: Wall and Piece - Banksy

Title: Wall and Piece
Author: Banksy
Genre: Art (Graffiti)
Publisher: Lebowski 2009 (2005)
Pages: Paperback, 240
Language: Dutch (translated from English)
Rating: 9/10
Summary: Photobook from graffiti artist Banksy, who became famous thanks to his thought provoking stencil art all over London.

Review
No one knows who he is, yet he is well known through his work. From the many examples in this book it's clear that Banksy is not simply a name-tagger; his graffiti artwork often expresses a big (political) idea and is more than merely decoration. Especially the stencils take a lot of preparation and planning.
Next to beautiful photos of his work, Banksy also offers comments on infamous actions (like putting up fake art in musea). It's a perfect coffeetablebook as it is a great book to leaf through and talk about.
Here is an example of his work: Kissing Policemen.