Customized: Art Inspired by Hot Rods, Low Riders, and American Car Culture

Sleek and slick and fast, hot rods with their souped-up engines and coolly restyled chassis have fired the imaginations of the youth who customize and drive them-and the artists who glorify them. Fantastically painted cars, as well as photographs and art works in other mediums inspired by America's love affair with custom cars, are the subject of this exciting new book, created to accompany an exhibition at Boston's Institute of Contemporary Art.

Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, Von Dutch, Robert Williams, Richard Prince, and Rubn Ortiz Torres are among the contemporary artists who embrace hot rods not just as a means of transportation, but also as shrines to a way of life. Challenging the stereotype that American car culture is the exclusive domain of white males, curator Nora Donnelly highlights the work of women artists Sylvie Fleury and Fiona Banner and the predominantly Latino low riders. With its fabulous images and lively design, here is a book with all the sexy panache of its subject.

BRENDA JO BRIGHT is a professor of anthropology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. C. ONDINE CHAVOYA is a Tufts University professor of critical studies at Boston's School of the Museum of Fine Arts. NORA DONNELLY is curator of this exhibition and is assistant curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston. ROYAL FORD is an automotive journalist at the Boston Globe. PAT GANAHL is editor of Hot Rodder's Journal. LEAH KERR is a published author. DALE PECK is a critically acclaimed novelist. RUBN ORTIZ TORRES is a visual artist.

95 illustrations, 75 in full color, 915/16 x 12"