Books That Inspire 2003
 
America
Andy Warhol


Where is the real America? Who are real Americans? These are the questions that Andy Warhol considers in this black-and-white photographic odyssey. From the man who saw beauty in soup cans and art in celebrity, the book conveys – in a charming and guileless way – a profound sense that the common, the odd, the commercial, and the star spangled constitute a national identity whose boundaries go beyond geographical borders and whose apprehension is possible only through the media-saturated web that surrounds and binds us in contemporary society. After all, as Warhol writes, “Everybody has their own America, and then they have the pieces of a fantasy America that they think is out there but they can’t see…. And you live in your dream America that you’ve custom-made from art and schmaltz and emotions just as much as you live in your real one.”
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Catherine Gudis
Assistant Professor
Honors College