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Art School's Expensive Art History Textbook Contains No Actual Art

Posted by samzenpus on from the insert-image-here dept.

Dr Herbert West writes "Students at Ontario College of Art and Design were forced to buy a $180 textbook filled with blank squares. Instead of images of paintings and sculpture throughout history (that presumably would fall under fair-use) the textbook for 'Global Visual and Material Culture: Prehistory to 1800' features placeholders with a link to an online image. A letter from the school's dean stated that had they decided to clear all the images for copyright to print, the book would have cost a whopping $800. The screengrabs are pretty hilarious, or depressing, depending on your point of view."

8 of 371 comments (clear)

  1. Hmm. by Mister+Transistor · · Score: 5, Funny

    This is what great art has come to in our time: Michaelangelo's "Broken Link"

    --
    -- You are in a maze of little, twisty passages, all different... --
  2. Reading the summary by Rizimar · · Score: 5, Funny

    Before I got halfway into the summary, I started to think that this was some kind of self-referential post-modern art book.

    1. Re:Reading the summary by kenj0418 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Maybe they are teaching the Art History majors their most important lesson "You have wasted your money."

      Normally it takes them 4 years of college and then a year or more working at Starbucks to learn that.

  3. First Edition! by reverseengineer · · Score: 4, Funny

    Anyone here teaching a course might be interested in the comprehensive new textbook I'm writing. It has an attractive hard cover, a quality binding, and a single page inside which lists the URLs for Google and Wikipedia. My planned retail price is $499, but I'm willing to offer a volume discount.

    --
    "FDA staff reviewers expressed concern about the number of patients who were left out of the study because they died."
  4. Re:So by AK+Marc · · Score: 4, Funny

    Because so many artists are know by only one name. Madonna, Rianna, Michaelangelo...

    --
    Learn to love Alaska
  5. Re:Global Visual Culture From Preshistory to 1800 by drkim · · Score: 5, Funny

    Have you guys seen the new art history book I wrote?

    It's waaaaaay better than that Canadian book. I've embedded the pictures right in the book:
    A Brief History Of Art
    (Please send me $180 if you click on it)

    Thanks!

  6. Sure, here you are, with a $20 tip. by Kugrian · · Score: 4, Funny

    http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/thumblarge_374/12368051426X3544.jpg
    http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/thumblarge_374/12368051426X3544.jpg

  7. Re:Global Visual Culture From Preshistory to 1800 by nospam007 · · Score: 3, Funny

    "A professor I knew who taught anatomy at the local medical school said they were using Grey's anatomy texts."

    Hardly. They would use the book from Henry Gray and not a script from a bad TV show.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gray's_Anatomy