Patricia Johansons House and Garden Commission

It takes courage in a review to describe an intensely scholarly, elegantly written and fastidiously presented publication as "mind-blowing," but here Xin Wu offers an inspired resurrection of an almost forgotten garden project launched in the mind-blowing 1960s when boundaries to the imagination were unfashionable. Even the Dumbarton Oaks format of two thin volumes is innovative with jewel-like color illustrations upon glossy paper: coral sand dunes under snow, clouds that walk the earth over the body of sea spiders, some editions presented in a chaste box like the Beatles's White Album...Wu's sensitive presentation of Johanson's seven garden types enlarges the mind. -- Timothy Mowl "Garden History" (12/01/2008)