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Blissfield (Images of America)
by Bob BarringerIn 1824, Hervey Bliss, who according to Duane DeLoach's Blissfield's First 150 Years stood "about five feet, three inches tall, with a somewhat florid complexion and . . . blue eyes," left Monroe County, blazed a trail 20 miles through the woods, built a log cabin, and founded the village of Blissfield on the west bank of the River Raisin. In 1826, George Giles, a neighbor of Bliss in Monroe County, moved onto land on the east side of the river in a place he called Lyons. Before the river was bridged, Blissfield consisted of two separate communities, each with its own schools and downtown areas; the village retains some of that split personality. Triple bridges, once nationally famous, remain the proud symbol of Blissfield, joining what the River Raisin keeps separate and what, as floodwaters insist, the river can still force apart.
Blitzkrieg Poland: Rare Photographs from Wartime Archives (Images of War)
by Jon Sutherland Diane Canwell"These photographs are taken from three unpublished albums featuring the German invasion of Poland in 1939. One set was taken by an SS officer, another by a regular officer and a third by a soldier attached to a medical unit. Included are German units on the move, tanks, artillery and aircraft.There are several shots of recently knocked out Polish vehicles, captured Polish troops and civilians. The shots reflect the rapid pace of the German advance through Poland, some of the cities, towns and villages show signs of heavy fighting, whilst others appear to be untouched. One of the sets show a German unit mounted in fast open cars, heavily armed, speeding through the Polish countryside. Another features armored vehicles and engineers, while another shows the ambulance teams moving up to the front through devastation and chaos.There are also numerous opportunities throughout the book to see uniforms in their various guises and how they were actually worn in practice. There are shots of earlier German armor, antique Polish armor, and photographs of German troops at rest and preparing to move forward again."
Blitzkrieg Russia: Rare Photographs from Wartime Archives (Images of War)
by Diane Canwell Jon SutherlandThe photographs are taken from five unpublished albums focussing on the German invasion of Russia in 1941 Operation Barbarossa. Two of the albums contain shots taken by German infantrymen and include shots of combat, vehicles, knocked-out tanks and prisoners of war. Two of the other albums feature flak and artillery units in the invasion. These include shots of artillery and flak units in action, destroyed Russian aircraft, vehicles and armor as well as Russian prisoners. The final album contains shots taken by a tank destroyer unit. In this set, there are shots of knocked out Russian armor (and abandoned armor), artillery and assault guns in action and a fascinating glimpse into the transition into the first winter. There are many exceptional photographs including rubber boats carrying troops across a river, knocked out monstrous Russian tanks, engineers at work and a range of more casual poses. There are also some interesting studies of uniforms and equipment, abandoned vehicles, vehicles being salvaged and maintained and a host of other subjects.Some are focussed on the early war months with Russia, so there are huge columns of captured Russian prisoners, fraternization with the local peasants and a glimpse of the vast distances involved in the advances made by the Germans in the early months of the conflict.
BLK ART: The Audacious Legacy of Black Artists and Models in Western Art
by Zaria WareA fun and fact-filled introduction to the dismissed Black art masters and models who shook up the world.Elegant. Refined. Exclusionary. Interrupted. The foundations of the fine art world are shaking. Beyoncé and Jay-Z break the internet by blending modern Black culture with fine art in their iconic music video filmed in the Louvre. Kehinde Wiley powerfully subverts European masterworks. Calls resonate for diversity in museums and the resignations of leaders of the old guard. It’s clear that modern day museums can no longer exist without change—and without recognizing that Black people have been a part of the Western art world since its beginnings. Quietly held within museum and private collections around the world are hundreds of faces of Black men and women, many of their stories unknown. From paintings of majestic kings to a portrait of a young girl named Isabella in Amsterdam, these models lived diverse lives while helping shape the art world along the way. Then, after hundreds of years of Black faces cast as only the subject of the white gaze, a small group of trailblazing Black American painters and sculptors reached national and international fame, setting the stage for the flourishing of Black art in the 1920s and beyond. Captivating and informative, BLK ART is an essential work that elevates a globally dismissed legacy to its proper place in the mainstream art canon. From the hushed corridors of royal palaces to the bustling streets of 1920s Paris—this is Black history like never seen before.
BLK MKT Vintage: Reclaiming Objects and Curiosities That Tell Black Stories
by Jannah Handy Kiyanna StewartThis one-of-a-kind treasure trove of Black cultural ephemera, from the entrepreneurs behind the vintage shop BLK MKT Vintage, expands on their mission to curate vintage objects that tell Black stories and celebrate the contributions Black people have made to our American consciousness. Jannah Handy and Kiyanna Stewart have spent years scouring piles, stacks, bookshelves, and dilapidated boxes in search of themselves and their history, Black history. Through their Brooklyn brick-and-mortar BLK MKT Vintage and online shop, they have uncovered tens of thousands of items including vintage literature, vinyl records, clothing, art, decor, furniture and more. BLK MKT Vintage: Reclaiming Objects and Curiosities That Tell Black Stories invites readers into Handy and Stewart&’s work and partnership as they pick, collect, curate, design, and reimagine futures for the objects of the past. Brimming with more than 300 photographs of vintage pieces of ephemera, the book is a beautiful, ephemeral object itself calling to mind a scrapbook or family album that has a surprise on every page whether that&’s 1972 celluloid pins from Shirley Chisholm&’s presidential campaign, early 1800&’s hand-drawn maps of the African continent, or 1920&’s bound yearbooks from various HBCUs. The book also explores the various concepts that ground Handy and Stewart&’s work; interviews with Black archivists, artists, memory workers and collectors – including a foreword from Spike Lee; a look into their private collection of thousands of items they have discovered over the years; an explanation of the different players in the antiques and vintage world; and tips and tricks on how to begin your own collection and curate physical spaces that reflect your identity and experience.
Block Island (Images of America)
by Donald A. D’amato Henry A.L. BrownBlock Island explores the evolution of the small, 7-by-3-mile island that lies between Point Judith, Rhode Island, and Montauk Point, New York. In 1637, Block Island, also known as "New Shoreham," was claimed by Massachusetts soldiers who took the land away from the Manisses Indians. When the island was sold to 16 proprietors in 1660, the history of Block Island as part of Rhode Island began. At any time of the year, Block Island has a special look and charm of its own. In addition to its beautiful sandy beaches and thundering surf, the island is plentiful with rolling hills, fertile valleys, and ponds. Within these pages, meet the early residents of the island and learn how this farming and fishing community first developed as a summer resort destination in the late 1800s. Summer scenes from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, including views of the steamers that arrived daily carrying thousands of passengers from New York, Connecticut, and other parts of Rhode Island, are also featured in this collection.
Block Print Magic: The Essential Guide to Designing, Carving, and Taking Your Artwork Further with Relief Printing
by Emily Louise HowardAn essential guide to linoleum block printing techniques, with seventeen step-by-step projects and insights from some of today’s most talented printmakers.Block Print Magic is the perfect reference for a wide range of printmaking enthusiasts. The easy-to-follow illustrated instruction takes you through every step of the process, beginning with choosing and caring for tools and setting up a studio, through design essentials, carving techniques, and printing techniques. Those techniques include multi-block printing, reduction cuts, puzzle blocks, and rainbow-roll printing. Advanced carving techniques for creating textures, crosshatching, and three-dimensional shading will give you the opportunity to expand and strengthen your expertise.Among the visually stunning projects you’ll learn to create:Colorful, multi-block hex signReduction cut sunflowers printOne-page pocket zine from a single blockFabric wall hanging embellished with embroideryAlong with author Emily Howard’s own work, artist spotlights feature interviews with and examples of work by five other contemporary artists—Lili Arnold, Jen Hewett, Kelli MacConnell, Derrick Riley, and Aftyn Shah—as a means of clarifying how each technique can be used in different ways.
Blockbuster: How Hollywood Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Summer
by Tom ShoneIt's a typical summer Friday night and the smell of popcorn is in the air. Throngs of fans jam into air-conditioned multiplexes to escape for two hours in the dark, blissfully lost in Hollywood's latest glittery confection complete with megawatt celebrities, awesome special effects, and enormous marketing budgets. The world is in love with the blockbuster movie, and these cinematic behemoths have risen to dominate the film industry, breaking box office records every weekend. With the passion and wit of a true movie buff and the insight of an internationally renowned critic, Tom Shone is the first to make sense of this phenomenon by taking readers through the decades that have shaped the modern blockbuster and forever transformed the face of Hollywood. The moment the shark fin broke the water in 1975, a new monster was born. Fast, visceral, and devouring all in its path, the blockbuster had arrived. In just a few weeks Jaws earned more than $100 million in ticket sales, an unprecedented feat that heralded a new era in film. Soon, blockbuster auteurs such as Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and James Cameron would revive the flagging fortunes of the studios and lure audiences back into theaters with the promise of thrills, plenty of action, and an escape from art house pretension. But somewhere along the line, the beast they awakened took on a life of its own, and by the 1990s production budgets had escalated as quickly as profits. Hollywood entered a topsy-turvy world ruled by marketing and merchandising mavens, in which flops like Godzilla made money and hits had to break records just to break even. The blockbuster changed from a major event that took place a few times a year into something that audiences have come to expect weekly, piling into the backs of one another in an annual demolition derby that has left even Hollywood aghast. Tom Shone has interviewed all the key participants -- from cinematic visionaries like Spielberg and Lucas and the executives who greenlight these spectacles down to the effects wizards who detonated the Death Star and blew up the White House -- in order to reveal the ways in which blockbusters have transformed how Hollywood makes movies and how we watch them. As entertaining as the films it chronicles, Blockbuster is a must-read for any fan who delights in the magic of the movies.
Blockbuster History in the New Russia
by Stephen M. NorrisSeeking to rebuild the Russian film industry after its post-Soviet collapse, directors and producers sparked a revival of nationalist and patriotic sentiment by applying Hollywood techniques to themes drawn from Russian history. Unsettled by the government's move toward market capitalism, Russians embraced these historical blockbusters, packing the American-style multiplexes that sprouted across the country. Stephen M. Norris examines the connections among cinema, politics, economics, history, and patriotism in the creation of "blockbuster history"--the adaptation of an American cinematic style to Russian historical epics.
Blockbuster Performances: How Actors Contribute to Cinema’s Biggest Hits (Palgrave Studies in Screen Industries and Performance)
by Daniel Smith-RowseyThis book examines performances in the American film industry’s highest-earning and most influential films. Countering decades of discourse and the conventional notion that special effects are the real stars of Hollywood blockbusters, this book finds that the acting performances in these big-budget action movies are actually better, and more genre-appropriate, than reputed. It argues that while blockbusters are often edited for speed, thrills, and simplicity, and performances are sometimes tailored to this style, most major productions feature more scenes of stage-like acting than hyper-kinetic action. Knowing this, producers of the world’s highest-budgeted motion pictures usually cast strong or generically appropriate actors. With chapters offering unique readings of some of cinema’s biggest hits, such as The Dark Knight, Pirates of the Caribbean, Star Wars, Iron Man and The Hunger Games, this unprecedented study sheds new light on the importance of performance in the Hollywood blockbuster.
Blockbusters and Trade Wars
by Chris Wood Peter S. GrantThe unparalleled global distribution of books, television programs and other cultural products would seem to augur well for the diversity of ideas and creative expression. Yet ever more of this flow is concentrated in the hands of fewer giant corporations, significantly American controlled, whose agenda is not pluralism but profit. This book focuses upon the market dynamics that drive ever-greater audiences to "blockbuster" films, TV programs, books and recording artists-at the expense of independent, alternative and increasingly necessary national voices.This is the first book from a Canadian perspective to investigate the facts about where and how cultural artifacts are created, why they are so different from other manufactured products, and why they must be treated differently. Grant and Wood examine how much the nature and size of a cultural industry's owner(s) matters; what "national" really means; how content quotas, expenditure rules and government subsidies help and hinder cultural industries; and why a new international vision must prevail. At the same time, they take a look at competition law and how it can promote diversity while examining how freedom of expression and cultural diversity are inextricably linked.Clearly written, impeccably researched, and passionately argued.
Blocks to Diamonds: Kaleidoscope Star Quilts from Traditional Blocks
by Cheryl MalkowskiThe quilt designer shares her technique for turning traditional square blocks into dazzling kaleidoscope star quilts in this guide featuring 12 projects.Quilt designer Cheryl Malkowski is always experimenting with new quilting possibilities. In Blocks to Diamonds, she shares 12 kaleidoscope star quilt patterns that use a simple yet ingenious design strategy: skewing traditional blocks into diamonds—and then forming those diamonds into stars. As Cheryl herself put it, “the results were instantly spectacular and very satisfying.”Blocks to Diamonds shows you how to create a complex quilt without the headache. With Cheryl’s step-by-step instructions, you will learn how simple techniques can be used to create unique and beautiful kaleidoscope star quilts.
Blogging for Creatives: How Deisgners, Astists, Crafters And Writers Can Blog To Make Contacts, Win Business And Build Success
by Robin HoughtonBlogging for Creatives teaches you everything you need to know about how to design and profit from a beautiful blog that people will want to return to again and again. Complete with hundreds of tips, tricks and motivational stories from artistic bloggers who have started from scratch, Blogging for Creatives covers how to publish and host a blog, as well as keeping it fresh, staying motivated and forging connections. Whether you?re looking to create a platform for your creative trade, an inspirational journal, or a hub for people with similar tastes and interests, learn how to benefit from being part of the blogosphere in this accessible, non-techie guide.
Blogging for Photographers: Showcase Your Creativity & Build Your Audience
by Jolie O'DellPhotography is a dominant force in the blogosphere, and the potential reach and influence of a successful blog is something photographers of all levels can hardly ignore - but where to begin? Veteran blogger Jolie O'Dell shares the secrets of finding success online with reliable and inspirational methods for building, maintaining, and promoting your own personal photo blog. Your images will find new audiences, your voice will be heard across the web, and your business will grow by leaps and bounds!> Dozens of inspirational blogs featured throughout show off some of the very best work done today.> Loaded with tips on how to consistently create content that's fun for you and your readers.> Learn how to engage your readership and interact with the global community.
Blond Venus: A Life of Marlene Dietrich
by Leslie FrewinBlond Venus, first published in 1956, is a look at the life and work of German-American screen legend Marlene Dietrich (1901-1992). From Dietrich’s childhood in Berlin to her success in Europe and Hollywood, Blond Venus portrays largely the public life and career of Dietrich; her private life was carefully guarded, and although described in the book, would require later biographies to paint a fuller picture (including the biography prepared by her daughter, Maria Riva). Included are 23 pages of photographs and a screen discography through 1952.
Blood and Black Lace (Devil's Advocates)
by Roberto CurtiMario Bava’s Blood and Black Lace (1964) is a legendary title, and is commonly considered as the archetypal giallo. A murder mystery about a faceless and menacing killer stalking the premises of a luxurious fashion house in Rome, Blood and Black Lace set the rules for the genre: a masked, black-gloved killer, an emphasis on graphic violence, elaborate and suspenseful murder sequences. But Blood and Black Lace is first and foremost an exquisitely stylish film, full of gorgeous color schemes, elegant camerawork, and surrealistic imagery, testimony of Bava’s mastery and his status as an innovator within popular cinema. This book recollects Blood and Black Lace’s production history, putting it within the context of the Italian film industry of the period and includes plenty of previously unheard-of data. It analyzes its main narrative and stylistic aspects, including the groundbreaking prominence of violence and sadism and its use of color and lighting, as well as Bava’s irreverent approach to genre filmmaking and clever handling of the audience’s expectations by way of irony and pitch-black humor. The book also analyzes Blood and Black Lace’s place within Bava’s oeuvre, its historical impact on the giallo genre, and its influential status on future filmmakers.
Blood and Lightning: On Becoming a Tattooer
by null Dustin KiskaddonAny tattoo is the outcome of an intimate, often hidden process. The people, bodies, and money that make tattooing what it is blend together and form a heady cocktail, something described by Matt, the owner of Oakland's Premium Tattoo, as "blood and lightning." Faced with the client's anticipation of pain and excitement, the tattooer must carefully perform calm authority to obscure a world of preparation and vigilance. "Blood and lightning, my dude"—the mysterious and intoxicating effect of tattooing done right. Dustin Kiskaddon draws on his own apprenticeship with Matt and takes us behind the scenes into the complex world of professional tattooers. We join people who must routinely manage a messy and carnal type of work. Blood and Lightning brings us through the tattoo shop, where the smell of sterilizing agents, the hum of machines, and the sound of music spill out onto the back patio. It is here that Matt, along with his comrades, reviews the day's wins, bemoans its losses, and prepares for the future. Having tattooed more than five hundred people, Kiskaddon is able to freshly articulate the physical, mental, emotional, and moral life of tattooers. His captivating account explores the challenges they face on the job, including the crushing fear of making mistakes on someone else's body, the role of masculinity in evolving tattoo worlds, appropriate and inappropriate intimacy, and the task of navigating conversations about color and race. Ultimately, the stories in this book teach us about the roles our bodies play in the social world. Both mediums and objects of art, our bodies are purveyors of sociocultural significance, sites of capitalist negotiation, and vivid encapsulations of the human condition. Kiskaddon guides us through a strangely familiar world, inviting each of us to become a tattooer along the way.
Blood, Bilge and Iron Balls: Naval Wargame Rules for the Age of Sail
by Alan AbbeyBlood, Bilge and Iron Balls is a set of wargame rules for naval battles in the age of sail. With them you can recreate the triumphs of Nelson or Hawke or tackle pirates on the Spanish Main. The rules themselves are very simple and easy to learn. Each player can easily command a single ship or several, the rules working equally well for a single frigate chasing down a privateer, or a large-scale fleet action with multiple players on each side. The basic rules have been written with the emphasis on providing a fast-playing and fun game, but optional rules are included which will add a greater level of historical realism and detail. A unique card-driven turn sequence prevents the game becoming too predictable. Also included are a selection of scenarios for re-fighting specific historical battles and simple campaign rules. Although intended for use with model ships, the rule book includes sheets of ship counters which can be used to get started. Just add dice, tape measure and pencil and you're ready to play.
Blood Circuits: Contemporary Argentine Horror Cinema (SUNY series in Latin American Cinema)
by Jonathan RisnerArgentina is a dominant player in Latin American film, known for its documentaries, detective films, melodramas, and auteur cinema. In the past twenty years, however, the country has also emerged as a notable producer of horror films. Blood Circuits focuses on contemporary Argentine horror cinema and the various "cinematic pleasures" it offers national and transnational audiences. Jonathan Risner begins with an overview of horror film culture in Argentina and beyond. He then examines select films grouped according to various criteria: neoliberalism and urban, rural, and suburban spaces; English-language horror films; gore and affect in punk/horror films; and the legacies of the last dictatorship (1976–1983). While keenly aware of global horror trends, Risner argues that these films provide unprecedented ways of engaging with the consequences of authoritarianism and neoliberalism in Argentina.
Blood Loss: A Love Story of AIDS, Activism, and Art
by Keiko LaneIn 1991, sixteen-year-old activist Keiko Lane joined the Los Angeles chapters of Queer Nation and ACT UP. Their members protested legislation aimed at dismantling rights for LGBTQ people, people living with HIV, and immigrants while fighting for needle-exchange programs, reproductive justice, safer-sex education, hospice funding, and the right to die with dignity. At the same time, the activists were a queer chosen family of friends and lovers who took care of one another in sickness and in health. Sometimes they helped each other die. By the time Lane turned twenty-two, most had died of AIDS. In her evocative memoir, Lane weaves together love stories and afterlives of queer resistance and survival against the landscape of the Rodney King Rebellion, the movement for queer rights, and the censorship of queer artists and sexualities. Lane interrogates the social construction of power against and in queer communities of color and the recovery of sexual agency in the midst and aftermath of violence. Luminous and powerfully moving, Blood Loss explores survival after those we love have died.
Blood on the Water
by Alex ConnorA short story from Alex Connor - a prequel to Isle of the Dead. A London art dealer comes to Venice after his wife dies and finds a corpse in a canal...
Blood Royal: A Sequel To The Three Musketeers
by Alexandre DumasThe latest entry in this acclaimed series of new translations of the Musketeer novels, Blood Royal continues the adventures of the valiant d&’Artagnan and his three loyal friends.The latest translation in Lawrence Ellsworth&’s acclaimed new series of Alexandre Dumas&’s greatest adventures is Blood Royal, the second half of what Dumas originally published as Twenty Years After. In this volume all the plots and schemes set up in the previous novel come to dramatic fruition in the kind of exciting thrill-ride Dumas is famous for—while at the same time introducing the characters and themes that form the foundation of the rest of the series, leading to its great climax in The Man in the Iron Mask. In Blood Royal, the Four Musketeers all venture to England on parallel missions to save King Charles I, pursued by the murderous and vengeful Mordaunt, the son of Milady de Winter, the great villain of The Three Musketeers. Despite all his experience, d&’Artagnan is repeatedly foiled by the much-younger Mordaunt, who erupts out of the past to embody the strengths of audacity and cunning that were once d&’Artagnan&’s hallmarks. Mordaunt has corrupted those youthful strengths, and the older d&’Artagnan is no match for him until he is able to pull his former team together again. To do this d&’Artagnan will have to become a true leader of men, leading not just by example but also by foresight, persuasion, and compromise. Only then can the team of Athos, Porthos, and Aramis be re-formed in all its might to defeat the specter of their past. Blood Royal is unmatched in Dumas&’s oeuvre in its depictions of his most famous and beloved characters, and an unforgettable saga of swordplay, suspense, revenge, and ultimate triumph.
Blood Water Paint
by Joy McCullough<P><P>Her mother died when she was twelve, and suddenly Artemisia Gentileschi had a stark choice: a life as a nun in a convent or a life grinding pigment for her father's paint. <P><P>She chose paint. <P><P>By the time she was seventeen, Artemisia did more than grind pigment. She was one of Rome's most talented painters, even if no one knew her name. But Rome in 1610 was a city where men took what they wanted from women, and in the aftermath of rape ,Artemisia faced another terrible choice: a life of silence or a life of truth, no matter the cost. He will not consume my every thought. <P><P>I am a painter. <P><P>I will paint. <P><P>Joy McCullough's bold novel in verse is a portrait of an artist as a young woman, filled with the soaring highs of creative inspiration and the devastating setbacks of a system built to break her. <P><P>McCullough weaves Artemisia's heartbreaking story with the stories of the ancient heroines, Susanna and Judith, who become not only the subjects of two of Artemisia's most famous paintings but sources of strength as she battles to paint a woman's timeless truth in the face of unspeakable and all-too-familiar violence. I will show you what a woman can do.
Bloodflowers: Rotimi Fani-Kayode, Photography, and the 1980s (The Visual Arts of Africa and its Diasporas)
by W. Ian BourlandIn Bloodflowers W. Ian Bourland examines the photography of Rotimi Fani-Kayode (1955–1989), whose art is a touchstone for cultural debates surrounding questions of gender and queerness, race and diaspora, aesthetics and politics, and the enduring legacy of slavery and colonialism. Born in Nigeria, Fani-Kayode moved between artistic and cultural worlds in Washington, DC, New York, and London, where he produced the bulk of his provocative and often surrealist and homoerotic photographs of black men. Bourland situates Fani-Kayode's work in a time of global transition and traces how it exemplified and responded to profound social, cultural, and political change. In addition to his formal analyses of Fani-Kayode's portraiture, Bourland outlines the important influence that surrealism, neo-Romanticism, Yoruban religion, the AIDS crisis, experimental film, loft culture, and house and punk music had on Fani-Kayode's work. In so doing, Bourland offers new perspectives on a pivotal artist whose brief career continues to resonate with deep aesthetic and social meaning.
The Bloodied Nightgown and Other Essays
by Joan AcocellaA collection of the New Yorker critic’s finest essays, which examine the books that reveal and record our world.Joan Acocella was “one of our finest cultural critics” (Edward Hirsch), and she had the rare ability to examine literature and unearth the lives contained within it—its authors, its subjects, and the communities from which it springs. In her hands, arts criticism was a celebration and an investigation, and her essays pulse with unadulterated enthusiasm. As Kathryn Harrison wrote in The New York Times Book Review, “Hers is a vision that allows art its mystery but not its pretensions, to which she is acutely sensitive. What better instincts could a critic have?”The Bloodied Nightgown and Other Essays gathers twenty-four essays from the final decade and a half of Acocella’s career, as well as an introduction that frames her simple preoccupations: “life and art.” In agile, inspired prose, she moves from J. R. R. Tolkien’s translation of Beowulf to the life of Richard Pryor, from surveying profanity to untangling the book of Job. Her appetite (and reading list) knew no bounds. This collection is a joy and a revelation, a library in itself, and Acocella is our dream companion among its shelves.Includes 25 black-and-white images