The Art MuseumEdited by Amanda RenshawPhaidon, London and New York2011
Phaidon’s The Art Museum is an impressively hefty hard-cover volume conceived as an “imaginary museum”. The coverage of the book ranges from ancient to contemporary times, and alludes strongly to the encyclopedic desires of the world’s great art museums. Thisbook-museum’s collection, being imaginary – or at least two-dimensional – isfreed from the logistical, temporal and geographical constraints that wouldlimit the collections of even the wealthiest museums. Exhibition halls aresubstituted by pages, and instead of the annoying guards who prohibit closecontact with famous artworks, our only barriers here are the limitations ofNewtownian space-time (or at least abstinence from halucinogenics). Think of itas the physicalist’s answer to the Google Art Project. Retails forR1034,00 at leading bookstores.
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