A stunning convergence of art and science that plumbs the depths of black holes, both cosmic and cultural.
How to visualize the invisible.
They were, from the start, an aberration: seeds of destruction planted in the laws of physics that could grow gravity so strong it would tear holes in space and time. Physicists tried to rid them from their equations to no avail—black holes are real. And they pose a real conundrum: How can we see something that eats not only light but darkness? It’s a question that Gamwell, art curator and historian, tackles in this arrestingly beautiful book. In 2019, she explains, the Event Horizon Telescope produced the first direct image of a black hole. It took a global array of telescopes forming an aperture nearly as wide as the Earth to capture the black hole in silhouette from 55 million light-years away. It’s an astounding achievement—but no less powerful are the metaphors that black holes provide in the hands of brilliant artists. “Once scientists discovered that the laws of physics no longer applied within a black hole, abstract artists drawn to irrationality were also drawn to black holes,” Gamwell writes. They stood for the darkness of the Holocaust, the erasure of atomic bombs, the bleak atmosphere of the Cold War. Full Stop by British artist John Latham, whose work deals with book burnings, shows what could be a black hole or a period at the end of a sentence—marking the end not only of space, time, and light, but of language, meaning, and discourse. South African artist Kamil Hassim’s Event Horizon installed prisms in the former prison that held Nelson Mandela and other anti-apartheid politicians. “The terms ‘inescapable’ and ‘point of no return’ can certainly be applied to the Old Fort Prison Complex,” the author writes. A photograph of the piece showing refracted light converging on a person shrouded in darkness is haunting, as are so many of the works Gamwell has chosen—from Chiharu Shiota’s burnt piano and charred chairs wrapped in a cocoon of black thread to Anish Kapoor’s painting in Vantablack, a coating that absorbs 99.96% of visible light. For a topic so inherently mysterious and emotional, Gamwell’s prose is stilted and dry, but the art more than makes up for it.
A stunning convergence of art and science that plumbs the depths of black holes, both cosmic and cultural.Pub Date: Oct. 21, 2025
ISBN: 9780262049962
Page Count: 208
Publisher: MIT Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 23, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
A familiar format, but a timely reminder that cities are made up of individuals, each with their own stories.
Portraits in a post-pandemic world.
After the Covid-19 lockdowns left New York City’s streets empty, many claimed that the city was “gone forever.” It was those words that inspired Stanton, whose previous collections include Humans of New York (2013), Humans of New York: Stories (2015), and Humans (2020), to return to the well once more for a new love letter to the city’s humanity and diversity. Beautifully laid out in hardcover with crisp, bright images, each portrait of a New Yorker is accompanied by sparse but potent quotes from Stanton’s interviews with his subjects. Early in the book, the author sequences three portraits—a couple laughing, then looking serious, then the woman with tears in her eyes—as they recount the arc of their relationship, transforming each emotional beat of their story into an affecting visual narrative. In another, an unhoused man sits on the street, his husky eating out of his hand. The caption: “I’m a late bloomer.” Though the pandemic isn’t mentioned often, Stanton focuses much of the book on optimistic stories of the post-pandemic era. Among the most notable profiles is Myles Smutney, founder of the Free Store Project, whose story of reclaiming boarded‑up buildings during the lockdowns speaks to the city’s resilience. In reusing the same formula from his previous books, the author confirms his thesis: New York isn’t going anywhere. As he writes in his lyrical prologue, “Just as one might dive among coral reefs to marvel at nature, one can come to New York City to marvel at humanity.” The book’s optimism paints New York as a city where diverse lives converge in moments of beauty, joy, and collective hope.
A familiar format, but a timely reminder that cities are made up of individuals, each with their own stories.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781250277589
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
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