Product Description

Scattered across the globe are remarkable individuals variously called "outsiders," "obsessive visionaries," or "folk artists." These unique individuals and the environments they create are celebrated in Self-Made Worlds. The works depicted in Self-Made Worlds--some presented for the first time--challenge long-standing ideas about what art is. From Le Palais Idéal, built in a small French village by the mailman Cheval, to the Hubcap Ranch by Litto Damonte of California, to Nek Chand's hundreds of human and animal sculptures made from waste and recycled materials and set in a massive landscaped rock garden in Northwest India, Self-Made Worlds is an international tour of some of the most remarkable manifestations of the idiosyncratic, eccentric glory of the human imagination. Edited by Roger Manley and Mark Sloan. Introduction by Jonathan Williams. Hardcover, 11.25 x 9.75 in./128 pgs

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #402029 in Books
• Published on: 1997-09-30
• Released on: 2005-06-15
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 128 pages

Amazon.com Review
Carefully conceived, with respectful, sophisticated essays and excellent color photographs, plus an extensive list of folk-art sites, Self-Made Worlds may prove indispensable to aficionados of outsider art, and will be educational for those who are new to it. The sites--minutely decorated, handmade, often monumental temples, grottoes, castles, and towers--range from the famous, graceful Palais Idéal in France, to a Depression-era shack in Louisiana painted with words. Portable outsider art fetches high prices, but as curator Roger Manley writes, all of these obsessive environments, whether about beauty, rage, or sadness, "stem from a deeply felt need for experience that feels honest, authentic, and highly personal."

From Library Journal
Whether termed visionaries, outsiders, or primitives, the artists represented here live in worlds of their own creation. Sloan, director of the Halsey Gallery at the College of Charleston School of the Arts, and folklorist/curator Manley present an international collection of folk art environments that range from cement towers incorporating bits of pottery in mosaic patterns to multiacre sites filled with temples to cement-figure sculpture gardens. Generally, the entries are two to four pages in length and include brief biographical notes, a discussion of the artist's unique personal style and particular need to create, and a description of the composition and current condition of the site. An index notes location, and photographs capture the passion of these eccentrics and their deeply felt opinions and religious beliefs. Not merely chicken wire, cement, and junk, these personal kingdoms are a testimony to creativity, imagination, and ingenuity. Recommended for comprehensive art collections.?Judith Yankielun Lind, Roseland Free P.L., NJ
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
"The range of places offered to both the neophyte and to the veteran opens up a wealth of previously unpublicized locations. We would hope for the Land of Pasaquan, the Postman's Palace, and Nek Chand's Rock Garden. But we might not know Butt's Dream House, Vollis Simpson's Windmill Park, Annie Hooper's Bible Stories, or Banner Blevins's Garden of Pre-History. The indefatigable Roger Manley is the guide to many of these wonders."--Jonathan Williams

"These intrepid souls may build cement towers embedded with thousands of found objects . . . they may construct vast landscapes out of society's detritus in the name of religion or a personal vision; they may cover their houses with beer cans, hubcaps, or embalmnig fluid jars while their neighbors and passersby look on with delight or horror, and nearly always with fascination."--Mark Sloan

"Whatever it is, it's not nothin' local. But it sure is pretty."--said by a neighbor of St. EOM's Land of Pasaquan
-- Review

Customer Reviews

fourth copy i've bought
I just keep buying this for gifts -- it's a coffee-table book that not only stays on the coffee table, it gets read and passed around. amazing background on how America's visionary roadside shrines are imagined as well as built -- i love the insights into the hearts, minds, and spirits of these folk art contrarians. by giving copies of this book as gifts, i feel i'm doing my own small bit to help people appreciate this art form -- and maybe even create something startlingly original of their own someday! the perfect present for every outer yuppie/inner wildchild on your list, or for anyone who's stuck in a rut or going through a life change. this book reminds us all to cherish eccentricity -- keep America weird -- and nourish our own (and everyone else's) inner visionary.

Not thorough, but entertaining
I'm a fan of what the author calls 'self-made worlds' and take pictures of them wherever I find them. This book treats its subjects with respect, but could include more photos of each place, and perhaps a general map to its location. I find myself wanting more from each section. Also, there are some particularly famous spots that are missing from the book, most notably Gilgal Gardens in Salt Lake City. There is a very handy index to self-made worlds in the back.
Maybe a Self-Made Worlds Volume II is in order?

Just getting started!
As a collector that is just getting started in this field, I found this book both highly interesting and amazing. Anyone who is interested in this field will find this book enjoyable. I would have given it five stars, but it is the first one I have read and did not have a reference point.