Here is a selection of print books, mostly on art,  recently added to the collection

 A journey of the imagination: the art of James Christensen /as told to Renwick St. James ; introduction by James Gurney. Over 180 full color images plus sketches.  A visually stunning collection from one of the world’s foremost fantasy artists, the serious thread is the power and importance of imagination; the rest is humor and fun. Journey is chock full of imagery: reproducuons of paintings and sketches of all sorts of characters and stuff of imagination.

 American maritime paintings of John Stobart /John Stobart with Robert P. Davis ; foreword by Frank O. Braynard. A magnificent collection of maritime art by America’s most popular contemporary marine painter. Here are over 70 full color reproductions of paintings by Stobart, as well as numerous halftones and drawings. Together they recapture the halcyon days when clipper ships and whalers plied the world’s oceans, and rivers and lakes echoed with steamboats chugging to the pulse of a growing nation. Each large full color painting reproduced in the book is accompanied by Stobart’s commentary, setting the scene in its historical context and revealing his own personal reaction to it.

 Constable: paintings, watercolours & drawings /Leslie Parris, Ian Fleming-Williams, Conal Shields.  This comprehensive and beautifully illustrated survey, which accompanied the ground-breaking 1991 exhibition at London’s Tate Gallery, combines a thematic with a chronological approach to show the variety of the artist’s responses to particular subjects and places as well as his changing attitudes toward nature and the business of picture-making.  Full use is made not only of the latest art-historical studies but also of recent technical research, including the first detailed examination of Constable’s materials and methods. With over 500 illustrations – 280 in color – and an in-depth commentary on 345 paintings, drawings, and prints, this is the most exhaustive and up-to-date account of Constable.

 Copenhagen /Michael Frayn.   The Tony Award—winning play that soars at the intersection of science and art, Copenhagen is an explosive re-imagining of the mysterious wartime meeting between two Nobel laureates to discuss the atomic bomb. In 1941 the German physicist Werner Heisenberg made a clandestine trip to Copenhagen to see his Danish counterpart and friend Niels Bohr. The two men were on opposite sides in a world war. Why Heisenberg went to Copenhagen and what he wanted to say to Bohr are questions that have vexed historians ever since. In Frayn’s ambitious, fiercely intelligent, and daring new play Heisenberg and Bohr meet once again to discuss the intricacies of physics and to ponder the metaphysical—the very essence of human motivation.

 Dinotopia: a land apart from time /written and illustrated by James Gurney. In 1862, after being shipwrecked in uncharted seas, Professor Arthur Denison and his twelve-year-old son Will find themselves washed up on a strange island where people and dinosaurs live together peacefully.

 Essential Monet /Vanessa Potts ; introduction by Claire O’Mahony. A collection of paintings by Claude Monet with historical context.

 Michelangelo /Jesse McDonald. Discusses the style and technique of the Italian Ranaissance painter and sculptor, Michelangelo Buonarroti.

 Michelangelo models formerly in the Paul von Praun Collection.  Abundant photography in colour and black and white. By means of clay models created by Michelangelo as a conceptual guide, the reader gains a rare insight into the mystery of the divine inspiration of the artist. Most of the models reproduced here are faithful in colour, many actual size. The careful distillation of many years of study, documentation and searching analysis through many countries, form the contents of this book.

 Monet: a retrospective /edited by Charles F. Stuckey. This volume provides hundreds of reproductions of Claude Monet’s (1840-1926) work, in addition to biographical information and primary resources about Monet’s life, including newspaper articles; letters and reminiscences from friends, fellow artists, and relatives. The editor also provides dozens of essays written by various scholars and art historians about Monet and his contemporaries including criticism by such classic authors as Proust and Zola, as well as in-depth interviews with Monet himself.

 Norman Rockwell, artist and illustrator[by] Thomas S. Buechner. Outstanding reproductions of more than six hundred of Rockwell’s finest illustrations and paintings highlight a close-up look at the artist and his graphic record of nearly sixty years of American social history.

 Portraits of nature: paintings by Robert Bateman /Stanwyn G. Shetler.  This book serves as background to a major retrospective of Bateman’s shown at the Smithsonian Institution. The book has sections describing habitats of major mammal and bird species of the world-lion, cheetah, elephant, grizzly, moose, and panda as well as goldfinch, heron, humming bird, and puffin. All these are illustrated in their natural surroundings. There is an underlying conservationist statement from these two professional naturalists but the strength of the book lies in its beautiful colour reproductions of Bateman’s paintings complemented by Shelter’s vivid description of the environment in which wildlife is found.

  Rembrandt /Jessica Hodge.  Combining biographical data with a selection of the artist’s works, an examination of Rembrandt’s artistic techniques features reproductions of his self-portraits and group portraits, including “The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulip” and the “Nightwatch.”

 Saitō Kaoru dōhanga sakuhinshū: 1968-1981. (Kaoru Saito Collection of Copperplate Prints: 1968-1981) Large format book surveying the copper engravings of Japanese artist Saito Kaoru between 1968-1981. Published in Japan in 1981, it is entirely published in Japanese language . Numerous reproductions of engravings by the master artist, many in color.

  The cremation of Sam McGee /by Robert W. Service ; paintings by Ted Harrison ; introduction by Pierre Berton. Constantly suffering from the cold, Sam makes his companion on the Arctic trail promise to cremate him when he dies, which the companion does–to his great surprise.

The graphic work: introduced and explained by the artist /M.C. Escher ; [English translation, John E. Brigham]. Presents the graphic work of the Dutch artist known for his often mathematically-inspired visual worlds filled with dimensional illusions.

 The magic mirror of M.C. Escher /Bruno Ernst ; [translated from the Dutch by John E. Brigham]. . Ernst visited Escher every week for a year, systematically talking through his entire oeuvre with him. Their discussions resulted in a friendship that gave Ernst intimate access to the life and conceptual world of Escher. Ernst’s account was meticulously scrutinized and made accurate by the artist himself. This updated and redesigned edition of a true classic―complete with biographical data, 250 illustrations, and a thorough breaking-down of each mathematical problem―offers answers to many lingering mysteries, and is an authentic source text of the first order.

 The pencil /by Paul Calle.  Calle explores pencil drawing as a serious medium, rather than just a preliminary step in painting. He offers a brief history of the development of the pencil and its use and demonstrates various picture projects.

 The Renaissance: 1401-1610 : the splendor of European art /Stefano Zuffi. The Renaissance was the period of greatest splendor in European art, and every page in this dazzling and immensely useful book captures that beauty. It’s large-sized, exquisitely produced, all in color, and filled with 600 unforgettable works from Donatello, da Vinci, Bosch, Michelangelo, Dürer, Raffaello, Bruegel, El Greco, Botticelli, and other masters.

 The Song of Solomon: an invitation to intimacy /Douglas Sean O’Donnell. O’Donnell offers this comprehensible guide to help uncoil its complexities and solve its riddles. Exploring the poetry, themes, and wisdom of this song from a Christocentric perspective, O’Donnell elucidates on the greatest subject of all time–love–showing how this “song of songs” is meant to teach us about biblical sexuality, human love, and God’s heart for his people.

 Visions: the art of Bev Doolittle /text by Judith Hohl and Bev Doolittle. A catalogue of published works