Deborah Butterfield

At 5x7 inches and 280 pages this lovingly curated and carefully edited book packs a wallop: Hundreds of photos show not only Deborah Butterfield's beautiful sculptures, but also illuminate her process through many fascinating glimpses behind the scenes. Add to that an incisive interview with New Yorker writer Lawrence Weschler, and you've got yourself a rich offering. If you're a Butterfield fan, or an artist eager to learn from another, this book is for you.

Not for Deborah Butterfield the bronzes of Frederick Remington, who saw horses as active partners of active men. Her horses are....themselves. Individuals. With distinct personalities. And great souls. If you love animals, these will steal your affection as surely as if they were great cats or dogs. What's surprising about Butterfield's horses is their construction. She began by making them of sticks, wire and mud. (And by building them big --- they're taller than most horses.) From the beginning, she could use these unpromising materials to deliver the essence of a horse. What she could not deliver was permanence. So she learned to use disposable materials as the mold of the sculpture, and then to cast it in bronze that retained the texture of wood, wire and mud. Careful painting completes the work. Butterfield breaks fresh ground with every horse. And why not? She thinks of her sculptures as self-portraits --- as explorations of her animal nature. Maybe that's why so many of her sculptures seem to be female. And why they connect on such a deeply emotional level. This beautiful book contains 75 full-color plates. It is the ideal gift for horse lovers --- and that includes girls who are mad for horses and are ready to dream about them in a new way. But even considered just as a coffee-table book, 'Deborah Butterfield' passes every test, starting with the shallowest --- your guests will gravitate to it, flip through it, and say, "Where did you get this?"

The work deborah butterfield does is so amazing. The grace and fluidity she is able to capture of the horses is remarkable, and I am not a horse lover. I love fine sculpture and her horse sculptures are amazing. Each one is different and rich and I can visualize the animals as she saw them. The images in the book are remarkable representations of her work and the text easy to read.

My heart swells with pride and admiration. What a wonderful tribute to an artist that completely captures the spirit and nature of the majesic equine beast she loves. The line and content of her work is perfect. How marvelous that her work is across the nation, how poetic and musical is the word that describes her work. A marvelous book.