This week I feel so honored to have Lisa Congdon share five of her favorite books. Lisa is a self taught mixed media artist and illustrator living and working in San Francisco. And if you haven’t seen or heard of Lisa’s beautiful paintings and collages from her features in magazines, posts about her on design blogs or interviews like this one, it’s about time. (I recently became a proud owner of one of Lisa’s paintings which I love.) She says she is obsessed with collecting books and zines that represent the artistic genius of regular (and some not-so-regular) people, past and present. Someday Lisa would like to make a book. I can’t wait for that day. You can see more of Lisa’s own work on her site here and her blog here. Now for some of her favorites…

I discovered Jim Houser much like I discovered Richard Colman, through finding his monograph. I found Babel at Giant Robot on Shrader Street in San Francisco’s Haight district, which I peruse regularly for new books. I am constantly on the lookout for books of art work by emerging artists that are bold and graphic, and Babel stood out from the rest of the books on the table—and has held the test of time. I still refer to it after over two years as a constant source of inspiration. Houser’s work is all about the installation. It’s all about the collection of images and works of various shapes and sizes and mediums and their impact on the audience. Babel is filled with color photographs of Houser’s installations—along with his friends and family, and his late wife, who was also a brilliant artist with whom he collaborated before her death. Houser is a self-taught artist, and the graphic, flat, “unfinished” elements of his work reflect raw aesthetic sense that is pure genius.

Lisa wishes to thank Julia for allowing her to be part of Book by its Cover, which is one of her favorite blogs.

Thanks Lisa for taking the time to share a great week of books. I loved learning more about all these contemporary artists whose work is so inspiring! And maybe we’ll all have to take a trip to Japan to get that beautiful design book- a Book by its Cover class trip.

© Julia Rothman 2007