This book conclusively reveals that fourth dimension theories and related spiritual quests constitute, at the very least, a key pillar in the development of modern art, if not its foundation. The book gives the lie to strictly formalist interpretations of the historic impetus for modern art. Perhaps more importantly, it highlights that vast amounts of art history omits the intended metaphysical content of early modern painting. If the record were set straight sooner, one wonders whether the trajectory of art would have led to contemporary art that is more substantive and enriching than it so often is. Artists such as Brice Marden, Agnes Martin, Astrid Colomar, Anne Truitt and others whose work is infused with spiritual depth would be seen as those whose work is most linked to, rather than most divorced from, the artistic heritage of modernism. With even out-of-print paperback copies of this ground-breaking book selling for well over $100, a new printing would be as welcomed as it is deserved.

One should not practice so-called fine arts without reading this book!!! One should be able to fill the b l a n k in his/her understanding of the contemporary relationship between arts & science! Worthy of your valuable time!

i highly recommend this book to anyone interested in turn of the century art and/or concepts of higher space. very insightful on a subject once widespread and now obscure, i.e. the fourth dimension.

Marcel Duchamp, the Puck of modern art, left copious notes on the 'Large Glass', which he left 'definively unfinished' in 1923 after seven years' work. The complexity and mischief in this piece, and in Duchamp's wider approach to art, has traditionally been subjected to analysis that places teleological art history ahead of the confusion of cultural history. Linda Henderson's approach places Duchamp in the context of the scientific understanding of the time, and her comprehensive research has cut through to the core questions with which Duchamp engaged.

Looking at the 1920s from our time, we are afflicted by a cultural blindness to ideas that have fallen from favour. Henderson looks beyond the prejudices of orthodoxy, and considers Duchamp's own writings and the popular understanding of science and technology that held sway eighty years ago. This clarifies aspects of the 'Large Glass' on which other writers have been silent; the significance of early wireless technology, the lingering concept of the 'ether', and early cathode-tube researches.

Despite the density and unfamiliarity of the ideas presented, and the inherent difficulty of explaining Duchamp's conceptual barrage, Henderson lively and clear approach is an exemplary and honest engagement with the conditions of art production. In no sense does she engineer the evidence so that a streamlined art-historical position can purr smoothly; she presents the material that informed Duchamp's ideas, shows how he processed this material, and argues persuasively for a Duchamp who responded to his setting rather than a deified modernist who worked in the vacuum of his own genius. Good art history enhances our understanding of art, history, and society. Henderson's honesty, and her sense of scholarly security, make for an invaluable contribution to the literature on a crucial and cunning giant of modern art.