Andrea Zittel

This volume is the first to compile Andrea Zittel's gouaches and paintings on wood, which she has been creating since 1992. Zittel is best known for A-Z West, her live/work space in the California desert, of which she states, "The A-Z enterprise encompasses all aspects of day to day living. Home furniture, clothing, food all become the sites of investigation in an ongoing endeavor to better understand human nature and the social construction of needs." This collection of illustrative paintings documents the mundane activities and objects that Zittel orchestrates and designs in her ongoing quest to streamline and fuse life and work. Of this fusion, critic Gregory Volk has written, "With her references to TV merchandising, pop-culture trends and self-improvement, Zittel is absolutely of her time. The real point of her oddball, visionary bent, however, is a search for personal freedom, simplicity and exuberant ease."