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Update 5/3/14: Robert LaVigne passed away a month ago. I am deeply saddened at his loss, and am sorry I was not able to see him again before he died. May he rest in peace. Original review: These booklets are a great concept -- take 25 different artists and have them each create a small booklet of their artwork to widely distribute. I have not seen all of the booklets in this collection, but I have seen a handful of them and own one. The booklets vary in quality of the art, but most are excellent. However, some of the reproduction leaves something to be desired. I have Robert LaVigne's booklet, Cyberliths, which is excellent. Robert LaVigne is an artist from the Beat Generation, a good friend of Allen Ginsberg and his ilk. His artwork in this booklet is very different from his paintings. In the work he has tackled the idea of the language and of the staggering time required to reduce plutonium to safe levels of radiation. We can barely decipher works from some cultures thousands of years ago. How can we make sure cultures millions of years from now can read our warnings on our nuclear "safes"? The art looks like black and white ink drawings, though it all was done digitally. They are of objects covered with glyphs that are believable and realistic. The work conveys a feeling of antiquity while also asserting the future. I give four stars to the collection and five stars to Cyberliths. --------------------------------------------------------- Postscript: I wrote this review 9 years go. I got to meet and work with Mr. Lavigne because he needed help using PageMaker to lay this book out and I supported PageMaker at Adobe Tech Support. He was in ailing health at the time and I don't know if he is still alive, as I cannot find any information about him. In return for my meager help he insisted I take one of his pieces of art, all he had in a tiny rent-controlled apartment above the Pike Place Market. I took the smallest he had. He was introduced to me by a good friend who was also immensely talented and who committed suicide a few years later. This review is my honest opinion of the book but it is also a memorial to two beautiful souls.

2022-11-14 13:45