Joe

Joe When renowned Hiroshi Sugimoto was invited to photograph the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts, St. Louis, his attention immediately focused on an immense steel sculpture, Richard Serraโ€�s Joe, one of the artistโ€�s torqued spirals, which occupies a small courtyard of the museum. Joe allows viewers to walk in through a narrow passage between towering, sloping walls. The path leads to a surprising central space from which only the curving steel walls and the sky are visible. Combining extremely soft light and blurred darkness, Sugimotoโ€�s pictures in this book capture the elliptical nature of Serraโ€�s piece. His images are complemented by the words of Jonathan Safran Foer, whose affecting prose poemโ€”about an "average Joe" experiencing the circular passage of timeโ€”echoes, without directly referencing, Serraโ€�s sculpture. Designed by Takaaki Matsumoto, this beautiful, large-format book features tritone reproductions printed on luxurious uncoated stock. The result is an eloquent and visually arresting commentary on time, impermanence, and memory.