Devices of Wonder: From the World in a Box to Images on a Screen

Rating:
Summary: Devices of Wonder: playful, engaging, instructive.
Review: The book, "Devices of Wonder: From the World in a Box to Images on a Screen", is the catalog for an exhibition that has just opened. The first two reviews provide perspectives and understanding that are quite different from those offered in the preceding review from Publishers Weekly.

Leah Ollman (LA Times, 11/18/01) comments that, "We want to know the world and have experiences beyond the ordinary. We want to extend our vision beyond its familiar capacity. These are timeless desires, born with the species. They thrive on wonder, ... 'Devices of Wonder' traces those impulses and the technologies designed to act on them during the past 400 years. Full of serious toys, marvelous instruments and art resonant with the theme of discovery, the show [and catalog] track a history of visual thinking, 'from the world in a box to images on a screen,'..."

Speaking of both the exhibition and the catalog, the hard-nosed and insightful reviewer, Christopher Knight (Los Angeles Times, November 19, 2001) remarks that, "The Wunderkabinett is back, their show asserts--bigger, now nearly ubiquitous and considerably more far-reaching than any Baroque prince could ever have dreamed. Today's Wunderkabinett is sitting on your desk at home or in the office, or perhaps it's resting in your briefcase or on your lap." "Looking at wondrous things in a Wunderkabinett becomes the launch pad for the wonders of looking. Sight connects with insight. Mirrors facilitate reflection. Images are themselves ideas. ... Playful and unexpected connections get drawn. ... The show [and the catalog] is filled with these sorts of surprising delights, which can send your mind off in unexpected directions." (...)