What is the role of the museum in contemporary society? Using the Oakland Museum of California as a case study, artist Mark Dion examines how museum practices have shifted over time, what these changes mean for objects in museum collections, and what we can learn about our culture from what's included and what's abandoned. Enclosed in a clamshell case and featuring fourteen specimen cards, this deluxe volume brings the reader into Dion's process and reveals how the order of images can change one's perception of objects. Contributions from celebrated writers, including Lawrence Weschler and D. Graham Burnett, articulate Dion's unique power of examination. In The Marvelous Museum, world-renowned aritst Mark Dion rexamines the concept of the museum by focusing on 'orphans'--items in a permanent collection that don't fit into traditional categories. Dion selects treasures from the archives and backrooms of the Oakland Museum of California from which to create his fascinating works of art---installations and assemblages of objects. This project will form the basis of the installation opening the OMCA's new galleries in fall 2010.
