Library Books at Home 4 |

A beautiful afternoon + a new pile of library books = bliss.

I've been following Thomas Ruff's work for some time. Modernism is a nice new survey of his career. That's a detail from one of his "jpegs" on the cover.

His gorgeous pictures challenge traditional ideas about photography. Here Ruff has blurred one of his photographs of a Ludwig Mies van der Rohe building. Who says a good photo has to be sharp? Not me.

This picture is from Ruff's "jpeg" series. He has taken some jpeg files from the internet and printed them very large — say six feet high.

So from a distance it looks like a photo, but up close it dissolves into jpeg "artifacts", as in this life-sized detail. Crystaline.

I discovered British designer Mark Brazier-Jones by accident. He makes furniture as if for an enchanted castle.

The text above this table says, "Is it mineral? Has it grown from the sea? Or solidified from lightning?"

This end table is covered in Swarovski crystals. What a good idea. I know I would spill something on this table immediately.

Love these little chairs. The look a bit low, but the text says they are standard sofa height. Great back support?

Now lets Escape from downtown Toronto for awhile.

As if guided, I opened to book to the Villa Cimbrone in Ravello, on the Amalfi Coast of Italy.

At the Hotel Palumbo, Ravello. Angelika Taschen, the author, suggests, "Guests who do not have their own private table should reserve one in the front row of the restaurant terrace and the enjoy the immaculate panoramic view of Ravello from there." Yes, we really should.

The Hotel Palumbo guest rooms and dining room — I think I could feel very at home here.

I've saved New Paris Interiors for last. I've had a peek and it is sensational.

For example look at these colours and collection details. I could move right in here. Lots and lots of rooms like these.

This Murakami sculpture looks elegant in the dining room of a duplex in the 16th arrondissement.

I like this idea for displaying small, framed, works of art. Change them every so often — store the extras below.

Here's a picture I want to ask you about. When I saw this footstool I imagined politely complimenting the owner. Then I imagined the owner offering it to me as a gift. Then my imagination took a paranoid turn. Would it be a wonderful gift? Or was it a horror and they had it there just to test people's taste? I keep going back and forth on it. Is it a horror or isn't it? In the book they call it a "vintage hoofed stool". That's rather neutral.