Mapping the Empty

Bill Fox remains stubbornly outside the ability of critics to label him. An independent scholar, a cultural geographer, an essayist, a poet, a travel writer, Fox consistently brings together unexpected fields of knowledge in order to illuminate the subjects at hand. He has been an arts consultant, curator, and visiting scholar at the Getty Research Institute. He has written widely on the nature of deserts and the role of the arts in American culture. He is the author of numerous articles and books; his work on cognition and the landscape includes time in the Antarctic as a visiting writer with the National Science Foundation and work in the Arctic with NASA on the Haughton-Mars Project. He lives in Burbank.

"Just imagine if any of the unreadable high-theory academics from your college art history classes had been storytellers, and you have, say, Mapping the Empty."—Jenny Price Bomb Magazine"Mapping the Empty is as perceptive in its analysis of each distinguished artist as it is in painting the big picture for us: that there's more to understand and appreciate in this mostly empty space than first meets the eye."—Phil Hagen, Las Vegas Life"An eye-opening introduction to just how much important art is being made in Nevada."—Geoff Schumacher, Las Vegas CityLife

• ContentsList of IllustrationsList of Color PlatesForewordAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Mapping the EmptyJim MccormickThe Topographical MindRITA DEANIN ABBEYArt in the Place of AbstractionDENNIS PARKSAn Art of Modest MeansWALTER MCNAMARAReassembling RealityROBERT BECKMANNPracticing ApocalypseMICHAEL HEIZERThe Perforated ObjectBILL BARKERMarketing the Alien(s)MARY ANN BONJORNIReconfiguring the WestSources