Reading a delightful book by Simon Garfield (of Just My Type fame), In Miniature: How Small Things Illuminate the World. As in his other books, he’s droll, magically readable, and a companionable guide to the odd world of the tiny, which, as a Giacometti quote in the beginning points, out is more likely to give you a sense of the universe.
“The creation of small universes in which we may bury ourselves to the exclusion of all else will be at the core of this book.”
Simon Garfield
As a fan of the miniature, I offer three examples (which may or may not have caught his eye, I’m only a third of the way through).
The Thorn Rooms at the Phoenix Art Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago & other museums. Pictures don’t do these justice, of course, as they look like real rooms in reproduction, but when you are in front of them and their 1:12 model proportions, their domestic interiors come alive. They were created by Narcissa Niblack Thorne (1882-1966).
Then there is MVSEVM, at the National Museum of American Art,
which was commissioned for the renovation of that museum, and both honors and questions the idea of a museum.
Finally, there is Miniature Calendar, the meticulous obsession of artist Tatsuya Tanaka.
A Few Reasonable Words 