Pathway Icons: The Wayside Art of India

Rating:
Summary: visually pleasing
Review: I agree with the person who wrote that it's unfair to call it "Indian art" since it only captures a pcs. from a few places. India is a very large place, and each state is whole other world.
Yet, I think the idea behind the book is beautiful, and the altars he chose to depict are interesting and classic. Just a few photos of these gave me enough inspiration to do more research.
The author could definitely have gone deeper into the subject, but I appreciate the simplicity of this book. It's consistant with the art.

Rating:
Summary: visually pleasing
Review: I agree with the person who wrote that it's unfair to call it "Indian art" since it only captures a pcs. from a few places. India is a very large place, and each state is whole other world.
Yet, I think the idea behind the book is beautiful, and the altars he chose to depict are interesting and classic. Just a few photos of these gave me enough inspiration to do more research.
The author could definitely have gone deeper into the subject, but I appreciate the simplicity of this book. It's consistant with the art.

Rating:
Summary: Pathway Icons: The Wayside Art of India
Review: Priya Mookerjee's book Pathway Icons is an incredible gift and find that shows the living practice of an art form that is a means of making a link with the divine. This is art in its most natural form.. The stones and objects wrapped in foil or cloth and painted with sandoor or other pigment are to me examples of the deepest kind of art and spiritual practice. The only flaw is the crude blue of the cover. I loved the intimacy of the photographs. If the reader is able to connect with these images do look at the books of Ajit Mookerjee which explain their deep meaning and context.

Rating:
Summary: Quite poor coverage
Review: Very disappointing!!!

All this book has is 76 photos of little statuettes that people make under trees and street corners and then others start worshipping them - they may get converted into temples eventually.

This is a very poorly presented book. I find it hard to believe that such books can actually get published. Seems like the writer was on vacation travelling though Rajasthan, Delhi, Gujarat and Bengal. She took some pictures on an idea and decided to make a book out of them. Most of the pictures are from Rajasthan and Gujarat, only 3 from Bengal, one from Delhi, one from Vrindavan, two from South India (that's a vast region), two from Benares.

To use the word "India" in the title is not fair. The book is not even remotely representative of the images and art of "India".

The book description talks about "the country's living art...". The writer being an artist I expected some more "art" and variety in the icons and pictures. A majority of the pictures have the same type of images and there seems to be no "art" in it.

She should not have used the word "art" in the title. By using that word she raised my expectations to think that the book would cover the designs and patterns used on the roadsides, by people all over the country.

A more appropriate title for the book would have been "Pathway Icons from Rajasthan and Gujarat."

Do not buy this book. It is a waste of money. I can see this work as a master's thesis but it does not deserve to be a book. Unfortunately, there is so little out there about Indian folk/people's everyday art that I cannot even recommend another book in its place. I am at least glad I bought it used and did not pay full price for it.