I posted about this book on the ReadyMade blog a couple weeks ago and realized that I’d never mentioned it here. It’s one of my favorite gifts for thinkie types. Here’s what I said: Curiosa has me spellbound. If you were the type of kid who saved special pebbles, scraps of paper, or important leaves, Barton Lidice Benes’s book of “obsessive assemblages” will hook you.
I couldn’t skip a single item-the communion wafer from JFK’s funeral, a bit of mummy dust, jelly beans from Ronald Reagan’s desk, Roy Rogers’s nasal douche. Item by item, the artist explores our acquisition instinct by grouping small, fascinating objects in illuminating ways. Something about this book satisfies the part of you that wants to be remembered with love. So ispiring.