Assembled over the course of her life, “Madame’s” collection, half real, half mythical, mirrored her own self-construction.

Helena Rubinstein was the founder of the highly successful, international cosmetics empire which bore her name. “Madame” ― as she liked to be called ― acquired a vast quantity of works, furniture, and artifacts of every type, in the process becoming a legendary patron and arbiter of taste. The most remarkable and innovative components of this astonishing collection, dispersed after her death at a historic series of auctions in 1966, were its African holdings, with the remainder being made up of Oceanic, Indonesian, and pre-Hispanic art.

It is the history of this collection, its content, and above all its spirit, that Helena Rubinstein: Madame’s Collection reconstructs. The aim, as well as the approach, of the exhibition is entirely novel. Paradoxically, until now, the story of Helena Rubinstein’s collection of non-Western art has had to be read between the lines: clues can be gleaned from a handful of texts, but the main sources are the countless features the international press devoted to the interiors that Madame occupied.

In a long-term investigation, Hélène Joubert, head of the African heritage unit, hunted down, identified, and scientifically documented half of the nearly four hundred pieces in the collection. Sixty-five of them are reproduced in this catalogue, including the famous “Bangwa Queen”, photographed by Man Ray and shown in 1935 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York at the legendary African Negro Art exhibition. These works conjure up an evocative portrait of Helena Rubinstein, creating an authentic and intimate image of a personality whose global fame simultaneouslyfunctioned as a mask, mirror, and doppelganger.

Business-as-usual in terms of industrial and technological development - even if based on a growing fear of pollution and shortages of natural resources - will never deliver sustainable development. However, the growing interest in recent years in the new science of industrial ecology (IE), and the idea that industrial systems should mimic the quasi-cyclical functions of natural ecosystems in an 'industrial food chain', holds promise in addressing not only short-term environmental problems but also the long-term holistic evolution of industrial systems. This possibility requires a number of key conditions to be met, not least the restructuring of our manufacturing and consumer society to reduce the effects of material and energy flows at the very point in history when globalisation is rapidly increasing them. This book sets out to address the theoretical considerations that should be made implicit in future research as well as practical implementation options for industry. The systematic recovery of industrial wastes, the minimisation of losses caused by dispersion, the dematerialisation of the economy, the requirement to decrease our reliance on fuels derived from hydrocarbons and the need for management systems that help foster inter-industry collaboration and networks are among the topics covered. The book is split into four sections. First, the various definitions of IE are outlined. Here, important distinctions are made between industrial metabolism and IE. Second, a number of different industrial sectors, including glass, petroleum and electric power, are assessed with regard to the operationalisation of industrial ecology. Eco-industrial Parks and Networks are also analysed. Third, the options for overcoming obstacles that stand in the way of the closing of cycles such as the separation and screening of materials are considered and, finally, a number of implications for the future are assessed. The contributions to Perspectives on Industrial Ecology come from the leading thinkers working in this field at the crossroads between a number of different disciplines: engineering, ecology, bio-economics, geography, the social sciences and law.