Japanese gardens are found throughout the world today--their unique forms now considered a universal art form. This stunning Japanese gardening book examines the work of five leading landscape architects in North America who are exploring the extraordinary power of Japanese-style garden design to create an immersive experience promoting personal and social well-being. Master garden designers Hoichi Kurisu, Takeo Uesugi, David Slawson, Shin Abe and Marc Keane have each interpreted the style and meaning of the Japanese garden in unique ways in their innovative designs for private, commercial and public spaces. Several recent Japanese-style gardens by each designer are featured in this book with detailed descriptions and sumptuous color photos. Hoichi Kurisu--transformative spaces for spiritual and physical equilibrium. Takeo Uesugi--bright, flowing gardens that evoke joyful living. David Slawson--evocations of native place that fuse with the surrounding landscape. Shin Abe--dynamically balanced "visual stories" that produce meaning and comfort. Marc Keane--reflections on human connections with nature through the art of gardens. Also included are essays on the designers and mini-essays by them about gardens in Japan which have most inspired their work, as well as commentaries by patrons and visitors to their North American gardens. The book focuses on recently-created gardens to suggest how the art form is currently evolving, and to understand how Japanese garden design principles and practices are being adapted to suit the needs and ways of people living and working outside Japan today.

Italian sculptor Davide Rivalta seeks out wild animals in their natural habitat and in captivity, then creates sculptures in bronze that capture their energy, otherness, and power. This book documents an exhibition at the Forte di Belvedere in Florence, where Rivalta turns the gallery and garden into a savannah with life-size buffalos, eagles, wolves, and a rhinoceros. Site-specific wall drawings of large birds highlight another artistic practice that the artist uses to explore the untamed essence of the animal world. His works are on show in permanent exhibitions in various cities, both in Italy and abroad, and have been shown in many art galleries and museums.

These composite landscapes are recreated places from an estranged homeland. Visible and obscured parts of the landscape suggest the interplay of effects between man and nature, as well as the imperfections of memory. The discontinuity induces the viewer to draw on their own experiences to complete the work. The textures of human fingerprints in the work evokes the uniqueness of our connection with nature and our impressions upon it.

"Heroic" is perhaps the only word to describe the Meissen porcelain animals made for the Elector of Saxony, Frederick-Augustus. They were commissioned in 1728 and modeled and executed by 1735. The great size of the figures presented many technical difficulties in creation and firing. Their mere completion in so many cases was itself a tour de force, making it arguably the most significant commission for porcelain executed in Europe.
Presented here are the large figures of animals from the collection of Frederick-Augustus, currently on exhibition at the Getty Museum until January 2002. Frederick-Augustus had long been a collector of Japanese and Chinese porcelain. He created the most ambitious interior for porcelain planned anywhere in Europe, the famous Japanese Palace in Dresden. On the upper floor was a gallery devoted to Meissen porcelain, filled with vases, great dishes, and the animal figures displayed in this beautifully illustrated book.