DANISH CHAIRS

Chairs are often considered especially revealing of a designer's skill because of the strict limits placed on their design by the demands of the human body. Danish Chairs is a comprehensive examination of dozens of chairs from the first three-quarters of this century. Each chair is illustrated with multiple photographs and sometimes by line drawings as well. In addition, biographical information is supplied for the designers listed. Although there is a short introductory essay on Danish furniture design and brief notes on each designer and their chairs, Japanese art professor Oda's emphasis is visual, and so it is a pity that the elegant book design suffers from the graininess of the photos. Sitting on the Edge has a wider geographic range and includes some other furniture, but it is basically a look at how designers responded to 20th-century architecture through chair design. Published as an exhibition catalog, it uses colorful illustrations to depict both individual items and complete rooms in the home of the collecting couple, Michael and Gabrielle Boyd. A number of short essays by distinguished curator-authors discuss the role of design in modern life and explore the chair as an exemplar of design. Visually exciting, with good-quality printing, the volume is flawed only by unreadable chapter introductions printed over unseeable historical photos. Danish Chairs, as an intensive examination of a more limited area, will be of most interest to art and design libraries, while Sitting on the Edge will appeal to a broader spectrum of libraries.