Monitor: Read

Blurring the Boundaries

Generally, theory and fiction keep to their own sides of the fence, but in Reload: Rethinking Women and Cyberculture(MIT, $30), the two cheerfully coexist, with witty, provocative sci-fi stories about the melding of (wo)man and machine rubbing against mind-bending theoretical jaunts into cyberspace. RES contributor Anthony Kaufman also blurs boundaries in Steven Soderbergh Interviews (University of Mississippi Press, $18), with 20 conversations pulled from the prolific director's career. They range from academically-inclined chats with Michel Ciment and Hubert Niogret to the witty intimacy of Katherine Dieckmann's Village Voice piece. Together, the articles chart Soderbergh's shifting attitudes and changing fortunes in fascinating detail. To make Blink (Phaidon, $60), 10 curators chose 10 photographers who they think are changing the world of photography; then 10 smart writers wrote 10 essays explaining the current scene. Add it all up and you get a big and beautiful book. But topping Blink's exponential collaborative process is the latest from bad boy designer David Carson (remember Raygun?). His latest effort, The Book of Probes (Ginko, $40) "visually interprets" Marshall McLuhan's epigrammatic, prophetic musings on the future of technology. It's a match made in media heaven. Finally, today's design icon, eBoy, has just published his first book. Titled eBoy (Laurence King, $50) it's chock full of his trademark urban illustrations -- very now and yet nostalgically retro.