Time

In his first major book in four years, internationally acclaimed artist Andy Goldsworthy presents a wealth of new work informed by the passage of time. Goldsworthy, who works with stone, leaves, grass, branches, snow, and other natural materials to create intensely personal artworks, uses time almost as a medium in his art: on a snow-covered Scottish hillside a huge rectangle of compacted snow becomes ever more visible as the surrounding snow melts away; clay walls dry out and crack, revealing previously invisible forms embedded within them;a sculpture of re-formed icicles is made to catch the morning sunshine. In the spectacular color photo-graphs seen here, Goldsworthy celebrates the many ways his art is about, or evokes, the passage of time. Presenting exciting works not seen in previous books, along with revealing excerpts from Goldsworthy's working diaries, this perceptive overview—which includes an extensive illustrated chronology by Terry Friedman—will become the definitive reference on Goldsworthy's art. 'Movement, change, light, growth, and decay are the life-blood of nature, the energies that I try to tap through my work.' —Andy Goldsworthy

Whether measured in minutes or eons, time is a good friend of British artist Andy Goldsworthy's. He spends long, solitary days outdoors in all kinds of weather, doing things like piecing together many, many yellow leaves to create a brilliant band of color at a river's edge in upstate New York or stacking small pieces of ice on the Nova Scotia coast to build a sculpture in the compact shape of an ancient stone monument. Threatened by a strong gust of wind, the incoming tide, or a sudden rise in temperature, these are fugitive works comfortably in synch with the natural rhythms of growth and decay.

Other works of his are longer-lasting. In walls made of stacked stones with hollowed-out oval "chambers" the size of his body--which he began building in 1999 in Lancashire, England--Goldsworthy makes reference not only to the shapes of graves in a nearby church but also to his personal history in the region and the enduring qualities of a rugged landscape.

Goldsworthy is the rare artist who can describe what he does in simple, concrete terms that nonetheless reveal his larger vision. Time is a very satisfying collection of 500 photographs, nearly all taken by him, that document the creation and subsequent mutations of his work. These evocative images are illuminated by excerpts from the diaries he kept as he created five projects in Europe and North America in the '90s. He discusses what it's like to explore an unfamiliar landscape, assess how the elements will work for and against him, and perform what are essentially a set of experiments. Success means making work that is, as he writes, "completely welded to its site." --Cathy Curtis