The Banham Lectures presents a series of essays by leading critics on art, design, architecture and culture. All are inspired by the revolutionary work of Reyner Banham, who continues to be one of the greatest influences on Design and Architecture today. Integrating the study of pop art, industrial design and material culture for the first time, Banham's brilliant analyses of subjects - such as automobile styling, mobile homes, science fiction films, and our fondness for gadgets - anticipated many of our contemporary preoccupations. And just as Banham sought to overturn the views of previous generations, these critics aim to rethink the objects and buildings we use today. Provocative, engaged and inspired, The Banham Lectures is essential reading for anyone interested in the world we have made. CONTRIBUTORS: Mary Banham, Paul Barker, Tim Benton, Beatriz Colomina, Peter Cook, Elizabeth Collins Cromley, Frank Dudas, Adrian Forty, Christopher Frayling, Richard Hamilton, Mark Haworth-Booth, Tom Karen Pat Kirkham, Tomas Maldonado, Jeffrey L. Meikle, Gillian Naylor, Cedric Price, Ruth Schwartz-Cowan, Charles Saumarez Smith, Penny Sparke

After World War II, museum and gallery exhibitions, industrial and trade fairs, biennials, triennials, festivals and world's fairs increasingly came to be used as locations for the exercise of "soft power," for displays of cultural diplomacy between nations and as spaces for addressing areas of social and political contestation. Exhibitions Beyond Boundaries opens with a substantial introduction to the key debates, followed by case studies that advance the field of exhibition histories both geographically and methodologically, focusing on postwar transnational exchange and the wider networks engendered through exhibitions. Chapters trace relations across Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, the Pacific, and the United States of America, drawing on a range of approaches and perspectives, principally from art and design history but also from social, economic and political history, and museum studies. Featured case studies include the presentation of African-American Art at FESMAN '66 and FESTAC '77, the US's 1961 Small Industries Exhibition in Colombo, Israel's early appearances at the Venice Biennale, the Vatican Pavilion at the 1964-1965 New York World's Fair, and Hong Kong's Pavilion at Expo 70 in Tokyo.