Reinventing the Garden: Chaumont--Global Inspirations from the Loire - Hardcover

Canadian by birth, Louisa Jones has lived in France for over thirty years. She is the author of numerous books on gardens, including Kitchen Gardens of France.

Since its debut in 1992, the annual festival of Chaumont-sur-Loire has led the way with adventurous, visually exciting renditions of the garden as art form. Jones brings her astute grasp of European trends and her winning prose style to a narrative interpreting dozens of designs from the past decade. Up-and-coming designers, internationally renowned landscape architects, and artists from varied disciplines all participate at Chaumont, creating gardens that expound upon such elements as water or weeds, or more conceptual themes such as curiosity or eroticism. An erudite guide, Jones cites the technical virtuosity involved and illuminates details of the gardens, shown here in a wealth of photographs and designers' sketches depicting provocative formal elements, imaginative plantings, and memorable ornamentation. Deserving of excellent documentation, Chaumont emerges as a venue where artistic expression becomes part of a contemporary dialogue spanning aesthetic, scientific, and geopolitical perspectives. The book's visions of "avant-gardening" will inspire neophyte armchair gardeners and the horticultural cognoscenti alike. Alice Joyce
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