Brudniak's technical assemblages are incredibly unique concepts, superbly crafted, poetic and surreal. However, they are also pioneering works of art science: Historically, they include the first assemblages to travel into outer space, the only art to integrate the oldest life discovered on earth, the first sculptures to incorporate electrical lightning, unique applications of human blood and more. 
Director Guillermo Del Toro gives us this description in the books foreword: Each of Steve Brudniak's artifacts is a relic from a time that never was, and each of them holds a secret. Through superb craftsmanship and a keen eye for design, Brudniak integrates science and technology into his work: Tesla coils, ferrofluid magnetics, electrically-induced mental imagery and other groundbreaking uses of retro tech. 
 His sculptures shock, produce lightning, induce hypnosis, reflect impossible images and light and produce sound through interaction, liquids miraculously come alive… And still others merely amaze with their unprecedented content and exquisite form. 
Brudniak fabricates, manipulates or re-shapes found materials into absolutely coherent, powerful works of art. He can cannibalize a junkyard, a discarded science lab or even his own bodily fluids in order to find the perfect balance between drama and aesthetics. Ask him to tell you the stories behind each piece and he will regale you with tales that involve illegal medical experiments, miracle cures through art and paranormal experiences. 
But, above all, the pieces themselves are the story. Like museum artifacts, they speak of a future/past that is half Orwellian nightmare, half Steampunk adventure. They tell long lost tales of expeditions, factories or mad scientist labs in lands out of reach, out of time. They stand proud and silent, awaiting your enquiring gaze, your thirst for adventure, your inquisitive touch. They never disappoint and always intrigue. That, I would venture, is the Brudniak touch. - Guillermo del Toro 
Contributors include:
 Steve Brudniak - Subject, Primary Author; Anjali Gupta - Editor and Introduction; Guillermo Del Toro - Foreword; Wayne Alan Brenner - Preface; Owen Ames - Essay Poem; Gerald Burns - Essay; Richard Cutler - Essay; Rachel Koper - Essay; Jack Massing - Essay; Wiley Wiggins - Essay; 
Additional commentary by 19 art critics and curators:
 Susan Chadwick - Critic, Houston Post; Kathryn Davidson - Curator, Menil, Austin Museum of Art; Louis Dobay - Critic, Houston Public News; Jim Edwards - Curator, San Antonio Museum of Art; Ben Fyfe - Curator, El Paso Museum of Art; Dan Goddard - Critic, San Antonio Express News; Sandra Goldman - Critic, Austin American Statesman; Alison De Lima Greene - Curator Museum of Fine Arts Houston; Paul Rogers Harris - Curator; Ken Hunt - Critic, Austin Chronicle; Jana Vander Lee - Critic, Houston Arts Magazine; Elizabeth McBride - Critic, Art News; Thomas McEvilley - Critic; Wendy Paris - Critic, Sculpture Magazine; Becky Duval Reese - Curator, El Paso Museum of Art; Christopher Schade - Critic, Austin Chronicle; Jeanne Claire van Ryzin - Critic, Austin American Statesman; Elaine Wolf - Critic, San Antonio Current

The Science of Surrealism - Assemblage Sculpture of Steve Brudniak

Wayne Alan Brenner

Owen Ames

Gerald Burns

Wiley Wiggins

Jack Massing

Richard Cutler

Arts & Photography

Merrid Zone

During World War II and the beginning of the Cold War, Richard W. Cutler was an officer with the elite X-2 counterintelligence branch of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and with its successor, the Strategic Services Unit (SSU). Counterspy offers a rare firsthand account of the secret war against Hitler and the postwar competition with the Soviets for German intelligence assets. While with X-2, Cutler analyzed the super-secret Ultra intercepts and vetted agents about to be sent into Nazi Germany. Cutler provides an insightful overview of OSS operations during the war and their contribution to the Allies’ victory. This is also one of the few books to describe the role of the OSS and the SSU in the postwar occupation of Germany. Cutler’s first job after the German surrender was to vet all of Allen Dulles’s wartime sources inside Germany, who were aptly nicknamed the Crown Jewels. Just as the OSS was reorganized into the SSU, Cutler moved to Berlin, where his first task was to collect intelligence from former Nazis. Soon he became chief of counterespionage in Berlin. Soviet intelligence had already begun recruiting former German intelligence officers to spy on Americans, so Cutler’s top priority was to uncover Soviet objectives and either neutralize or double their agents. Cutler reveals previously unpublished case histories of double agents against Soviet intelligence and details agents’ recruitment, missions, methods of operation, successes and failures, and fates. All of these events are recounted against the fascinating background of postwar Germany. He provides a vivid picture of the mood of the German people, how they rationalized war guilt, and how they coped with the devastation throughout the country. With photographs and a foreword by bestselling author Joseph E. Persico (Roosevelt’s Secret War: FDR and World War II Espionage), Counterspy is a unique account of espionage during the momentous years of World War II and the beginning of the Cold War.

Counterspy: Memoirs of a Counterintelligence Officer in World War II and the Cold War

Brassey's Books

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Books by Richard Cutler