Spirit Stones

Spirit StonesShaped by nature and selected by man, scholars' rocks, or gongshi, have been prized by Chinese intellectuals since the Tang dynasty, and are now sought after by Western collectors as well. They are a natural subject for the photographer Jonathan Singer, most recently acclaimed for his images of those other remarkable hybrids of art and nature, Japanese bonsai. Here Singer turns his lens on some 150 fine gongshi, ancient and modern, from the world

and they are even more stylistically and culturally diverse—ranging from an ancient Egyptian tomb model

as the “people of gold

and coquettes

The product of extensive fieldwork

and Africa

to a Japanese ad for laundry soap

and her husband

Each volume presents sixteen diverse works of art

and includes special sections on Sarg’s long association with the island of Nantucket and his influence on American puppetry

an expression of boredom and frustration flitting across his face

New York's Guggenheim Museum

pithy design language could unite people across generations and cultural boundaries