Speck: A Curious Collection of Uncommon Things

Various, Peter Gordon Buchanan-Smith. Princeton Architectural Press, $25 (222pp) ISBN 978-1-56898-297-7

Disturbing closeups of lipsticks; a collection of heartbreakingly earnest lost-pet fliers; painstakingly documented differences in the scribbles produced by Eraser Mate or Dynagrip pens all help make up Speck: A Curious Collection of Uncommon Things. Peter Buchanan-Smith, art director of the New York Times Op-Ed page, presents various odd obsessions of 25 artists in various media, and the result is this set of 200 color and 50 b&w illustrations of ""projects"" that come dangerously close to drawing charges of haphazard artmaking and are all the more engaging for it. ( Jan. 24)

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