Maya Lin: Topographies

This luxurious volume, the first retrospective of Lin's 30-year-long career as an artist and dedicated conservationist, is a keepsake compendium of her art, architecture, and memorials, beginning with her much-celebrated Vietnam veterans' memorial (1982) and concluding with her ongoing and%E2%80%94according to Lin, last%E2%80%94memorial chronicling the disappearing species and habitats on earth. "The common thread that runs through all of my work is the love and respect I have for the natural world," she writes in the introduction. The book also includes a disappointing foreword by writer John McPhee and essays by critics, scholars, and others, but its real value are the frequently full-bleed photographs and Lin's collateral material. Among the latter are her poetic line drawings, almost as breathtaking in their simplicity as the final jaw-dropping executions. Lin has always tackled critical issues including women's rights, civil rights, and vanishing cultures. "The Confluence Project" (2000%E2%80%932017), built on six large-scale landscape sites along the Columbia River in Washington and Oregon, commemorates not only the 200th anniversary of Lewis and Clark's journey west but also the Native American tribes they encountered. Along with permanent installations, the book documents transitory works that are no longer extant, including "Il Cortile Mare" (1998), a wave-like piece in the courtyard of Rome's American Academy of Art. This is a comprehensive volume showcasing an extraordinary artist who transcends language, time, history, and categorization. (Oct.)