.."". an elegant and lyrical work.... It opens up our understanding of space and built environments in new and exciting ways."" -- Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review
""The book offers marvellous drawings of complex patterns of structure, design and object, coupled with connections to the daily lives of the inhabitants. In itself, this book is an essential addition to what Indiana University Press has aptly described as 'the understanding of vernacular architecture'."" -- West Africa
.."". a magnificent achievement; [the authors] set an objective and a standard in vernacular architecture research which is without parallel. The text is clear and careful, sensitive to the cultures yet quietly rigorous. The drawings are outstanding and have been exceptionally well reproduced in a book whose quality of production matches that of the content."" -- Paul Oliver
.."". a lasting monument to African architectures.... a fine creation, a collage of marvelous graphic images, earnest research, good writing, careful thinking."" -- Henry Glassie
""Scholars are realizing how important it is to provide a rich, thick cultural and social setting when they attempt to explore art.... This book does that for architecture."" -- Patrick R. McNaughton
.."". will be regarded as an important contribution to the understanding of vernacular architecture."" -- Berkeley Tri-City Post
.."". a stunning piece of work... An important contribution to architecture..."" -- FIST, Afrocentric On-line Magazine
""The photographs and drawings are fascinating. "" -- The New Brunswick Reader
Architect Jean-Paul Bourdier and cultural critic and filmmaker Trinh T. Minh-ha take us into the traditionally built dwellings of African society in this richly illustrated book. Through this ""life-in-architecture"" we see material evidence of a culture, its socio-economic and cosmological organization, its way of living, and its world view.

Drawn from African Dwellings

Arts & Photography

Bourdier, Jean-Paul

History & Criticism

Indiana University Press

The dwellings of hundreds of African ethnic groups offer a variety of conceptions and building practices that contradict the widespread image of the primitive hut commonly attributed to rural Africa. Each house or group of houses is designed not only to shelter the members of a family, but also to enable intimate communication with ancestors and divinities and to harmonize with the forces of nature. Such an architecture thrives in a community context where it is simply not acceptable to plunder resources from the earth, and resources are used only in accordance with their availability, in quantity, and at times of year that minimize environmental impact. This cultural dimension and its realization through different architectural practices are illustrated in this work with examples taken from dwellings across numerous ethnic groups in sub-Saharan West Africa. Drawings, plans, axonometric projections, and photographs show the beauty and complexity of this architecture that is a spiritual praxis―as much place of life as work of art.

Vernacular Architecture of West Africa: A World in Dwelling

Minh-Ha, Trinh T.

Reference

Routledge

* Limited-time offer from Jean-Paul Bourdier! Order from Jean-Paul Bourdier and get a signed book and an exclusive package. * In Body Unbound, Jean-Paul explores human existence through the physical, the ethereal, and our cultural ancestry. For the first time, he also reveals the preparation behind his work through architectural sketches, and shares his inspiration and creative endeavors through hand-written contemplative verses, field notes and stories told by the participants.

Body Unbound

Painting

GOFF BOOKS

Dwellings Settlements and Tradition: Cross-Cultural Perspectives

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Univ Pr of Amer

The diversity and complexity of African vernacular architecture remain widely unknown both to the general public and to architects. Yet Upper Volta (Burkino Faso) encompasses an astonishing variety of design principles and building techniques that belie the widespread image of the primitive hut so readily associated with rural Africa. This provides a convincing interpretation of the relationship between spatial organisation and daily activity in Gurunsi life.

African Spaces: Designs for Living in Upper Volta (Burkina Faso)

History

Minh-Ha, Trinh

Historical Study & Educational Resources

Holmes & Meier Publishers

The term body art” often conjures rude images of radical piercings and raunchy tattoos on modern primitives.” Here artist Jean-Paul Bourdier applies his skills to a completely different task: to create haunting photographic images that allow viewers to see the environment from inside out by painting the bodies of models, thereby making them one with the desert landscape. In these photographs Bourdier eschews any digital altering, instead combining primal forms and materials with diverse textures to create exciting new interpretations of timeless nature and temporal body.

Bodyscapes

Individual Artists

Earth Aware Editions

This body of work is a contemplation of human beings' passage on earth and their intimate interrelation with the environment. This book attempts to bring humor to the things we are getting attached to. It points at the invisible within the visible, the immaterial within the material or the vertical nature of&nbsp;being&nbsp;(and its mirror-like quality) within our horizontal way of living (where our mind, time, and space condition our experiences). The naked body is seen as our primary indivisible unit of perception which is usually pushed and pulled by our thinking mind's desire to either get less or more. In other words, our lives are colored by our minds and since body-mind is a single entity, most of the colors painted on the body are an allusion to the range of our changing desires from being invisible or transparent to wanting to be singular and the center of attention. The book Interviews (the interviewers are from Russia, Colombia, Korea, Germany, and the US) stanzas, and photographs are not seen as being subservient to one another but can be seen as an assemblage of three independent directions that may or may not intersect following each reader.

Body Mirror

Romance

Paranormal

The lush surreal illustrations of this book and its short humoristic story telling make it a fun, quick read for all ages and for anyone obliquely interested in our thirst for development and the nature of who we are. Through a poetic parody of human's desires for more of everything, we become aware that such a quest does not bring us any closer to knowing ourselves or seeing, as contemporary scientific or spiritual leaders are telling us: all things and beings of our planet are intimately related, alive and ultimately "One." While each colorful painting alludes to our close relationship with the world, short lines innocently and wryly comment on the predicaments of our lives pertaining to the industrial world, where dream and reality often appear intertwined. Through the shifting identities of forms, this album gives us a glance at our own formless nature and how our excessive wish for love, home, comfort, power, and productivity inexorably transforms our worldview and make us bypass our deep infinite nature, which cannot be contained through words. As some indigenous traditions have taught us: "life is like a dream. One wonders whether it is by living that we dream or by dreaming that we live."

Who Am I?

HABITER UN MONDE: ARCHITECTURES DE L'AFRIQUE DE L'OUEST

Trinh, Thi Minh-Ha

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