True Grit: American Prints from 1900 to 1950, edited by Stephanie Schrader, is yet another Getty offering that is both visually and intellectually engaging. This exhibition catalogue includes several essays that engage the works as both products of their time and as works using methods that allow for wider distribution.

While the essays are written by experts and are thus detailed, they do not fall into the trap of being dry or too bogged down by minutiae. The smaller pictures within the body of the essays and the large plates in the last half of the book, when coupled with the information in the essays, gave me a much better appreciation for the works, the artists, and what they were trying to do.

I am the type of reader that has some basic understanding of art but am far from being well-versed. This book was readily accessible to someone like me and, I think, would also offer a lot even for students (formal or informal) of art. I have to admit that I was, for several days, totally engrossed with this book and anticipate coming back to it periodically. I read it one day and spent some time going from images to words and back, then thought I was finished. But something would cross my mind, maybe wanting to check an image closer, maybe wanting to see if what I thought I saw was actually in the print. I kept coming back and was never let down when I did.

Highly recommended both for the stunning plates and the thought-provoking essays.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley. ( )