cover image Christo: The Pont-Neuf, Wrapped, Paris, 1975-85

Christo: The Pont-Neuf, Wrapped, Paris, 1975-85

Wolfgang Volz, Christo. ABRAMS, $95 (586pp) ISBN 978-0-8109-3164-0

Famous for his large-scale, temporary outdoor artworks, Bulgarian-born artist Christo wrapped Paris's oldest bridge, the Pont-Neuf, in 440,000 square feet of sandstone-colored nylon fabric. The eerily beautiful spectacle, on view for two weeks in September 1985, was a collaborative project involving 30 companies and 1260 people. In this exhaustive, solemn tome, replete with hundreds of drawings, documents, maps and magnificent color photographs, Bourdon ( Warhol ) discusses the legal, political and logistical hurdles Christo and his team had to overcome. Montgolfier, a curator at the Musee Carnavalet in Paris, nicely fills in the historical background of the Seine-straddling bridge. This volume is itself a work of art, a monument to the ephemeral event it indelibly records. (Nov.)