With more than 130 works created during the past decade, The Fine Art of Wood celebrates a pivotal artistic breakthrough: artists working in wood now claim the same freedom of expression long enjoyed by ceramists and glass artists. These innovative new pieces, which feature strikingly handsome shapes, unusual finishes, and woods from every corner of the world, have been beautifully photographed and reproduced here in conjunction with an upcoming exhibition at the Detroit Institute of Arts.

The books intelligent introduction also breaks new ground, tracing the evolution of these works away from traditional crafts and putting them in the aesthetic context of the fine arts by persuasively linking them to such recent movements as Pop art and Minimalism. An extensive catalog section spotlights the visual pleasures of the works themselves, by artists ranging from David Ellsworth, Ron Kent, and Mark Lindquist to Rude Osolnick and Bob Stocksdale.

Bonita Fike is Associate Curator of modern and Contemporary Art at the Detroit Institute of Arts.