Rock of Ages, Sands of Time: Paintings by Barbara Page, Text by Warren Allmon

More than 500 million years of the earth's history has been commissioned by Ithaca, New York's Museum of the Earth, set to open next year. The history comes in the form of 544 contiguously painted panels by upstate New York artist Barbara Page, taking observers from the Cambrian to the Creataceous (and beyond), and gathered here in Rock of Ages, Sands of Time. Beautifully printed and bound in a horizontal format and blurbed by Stephen Jay Gould, among others, the book includes commentary by Paleontological Research Institution director Warren Allmon and foreword by photographer Rosamond Wolff Purcell (Crossing Over) in addition to superb panel-by-panel reproductions of the paintings. ( July 15)