A Feast for the Eyes

This ravishingly luscious book proves once and for all, if it ever were in doubt, that food is art. An abecedarium of comestible confections and culinary marvels from around the world that is at once arrestingly beautiful and usually edible. --Ken Albala, University of the Pacific New York Times The illustrations are a careful selection of mainly contemporary materials, from a witty recreation of Arcimboldo's Vertumnus to astonishing crop art in the rice fields of Japan, corn palaces in South Dakota, and tea, chocolate, and coffee in strange manipulations, all brought together for the first time to give a delightful overview of edible art, beautifully designed and printed. --Gillian Riley, food historian New York Times Maurizio Cattelan's now-infamous banana is hardly the only work of art made from literal foodstuffs. In artist Tillie's gorgeously illustrated A Feast for the Eyes, she considers the role of art in the full span of art history, from prehistoric paintings done on the inside of eggshells, to elaborately crafted Renaissance banquets with extravagant sugar centerpieces. But the heart of this little volume--or should I say the gut?--is the incredible alphabetical rundown of artworks made from all types of edible ingredients, such as Vik Muniz's caviar Frankenstein (2004) and Blake Little's viral photographs of models dripping in honey. --Ken Albala, University of the Pacific ArtNet News Any survey of food as art has to feature Giuseppe Arcimboldo, the sixteenth-century Italian painter whose portraits are montages of food. There is a take-off on one, by the photographer Klaus Enrique, on the cover of this lovely volume, A Feast for the Eyes. The book is an alphabetical compendium, with entries showing and explaining fanciful Easter eggs, mosaics made from seeds and rice, carved radishes, butter sculptures, insanely elaborate lattes, and intricate Japanese confections. The introduction gives historical background from 60,000-year-old engraved ostrich shells to Instagram. --Florence Fabricant New York Times