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For a framework the book presents a selection of past viewpoints from critics and curators on Craig Langager's earlier paintings and sculpture. The main body of the book presents Langager's earlier paintings and constructions of the seventies in relation to his recent painting series wherein references to land and sky now become larger territories. The structural device of stacking in some of the early wall constructions of the late seventies reappears in several of the new paintings. The book also documents his unconventional use of animal manikins in fine art, the dominant presence of animal and bird images imbedded in architectural structures, and installations dealing with the issue of cloning during the eighties and nineties. For the past two decades Langager has revisited the element of color. He has progressed from the mastery of detailed color in his sculptural series Birds I Have Known to the re-invigoration of full, radiant color in his paintings.However, rather than a strict chronological presentation, this book interconnects Langager's paintings and sculpture in this overall theme of a sense of place. Works reverberate with each other through sub-themes of atmospheric reflections, architectural elements, transformations in the natural and man-made world, and psychological effects of time and space. In each sub-theme and section images are explored with attendant comparisons. At end of each section pertinent comments from Langager are drawn from recent videos and contemporary conversations. 110pages, 150 color images.

Bennerstrom (b.1949) is an artist who has exhibited consistently in the Pacific Northwest since 1981, and nationally for the past ten years. With this volume readers can savor her stunning pastel paintings in 64 color plates, with three interpretive essays by Updike (an independent art critic) and two other art critics (Rod Slemmons--photography, U. of Washington; and Sarah Clark-Langager, Western Washington U.). c. Book News Inc.