'The cultural history of the mirror is fully explored by Sabine Melchior-Bonnet. The book marries science and art, literature and philosophy.' - New York Times

'This erudite meditation ... reveals how significantly the mirror has influenced Western culture ... this beautifully illustrated study offers so many intriguing glimpses into the meanings of reflection that it will reward anyone who peers beneath its surface.' - Publishers' Weekly

A beautifully illustrated, well-researched presentation of the evolution of fountain pens, showing how political and social events influenced their designs, the trends in their evolution process, and competition, fights, and mergers among manufacturers. This guide shows more than 3000 fountain pens, in 606 full color photographs, with competing models side-by-side to reveal their similarities and differences. At the end of each chronological organized chapter, a timeline shows the main events in the world together with the models introduced by each manufacturer. Other books have addressed the history and development of fountain pens, typically, looking at the evolution of individual manufacturers. That approach, however, leaves out two important aspects: the interaction between manufacturers and influences world events had on their designs. The whole history of the fountain pen is told as a sequence of small stories about the main events. Many of the pens shown here have not previously been published in other books.

"Here's another book about Frida Kahlo, and this one doesn't feature even a single original painting. What it does contain are encounters with her- curious, moving, or just fun - from around the world. From Frida fashion dolls to little clay Friditas, all of us at some point have encountered the countless souvenirs, images and mementos that reinvent the great Mexican artist, and keep her alive in popular memory. Her own painting was steeped in Mexican folk art, and the connection has turned out to be curiously reciprocal. Popular artists - not just in Mexico but around the world - have been inspired by her life, art, and persona, to come up with extraordinary and at times very curious tributes to her. The ways in which she is repeatedly re-labeled and re-invented is unprecedented in the world of art. Is this global appropriation of Frida as an icon - Fridamania - just commercial kitsch? Or is there another way of thinking about the phenomenon? Featuring a staggering variety of Frida objects, images and mementoes in every conceivable material, this book traces some of the trails that Frida herself laid... a legacy which allows people to create their own countless versions of her. "