The Hand And The Soul: Aesthetics and Ethics in Architecture and Art

Iliescu (art and architecture, U. of Virginia) compiles 12 essays that explore how ethical considerations influence the practices of art and architecture, maintaining that artists and designers should adopt a critical attitude toward what they create but allow ethics to affect their aesthetics. Architects, artists, historians, and philosophers from the US discuss the ethical responsibility inherent in creating art, how aesthetics and ethics are intertwined, and how architecture should address both formal abstraction and human function. They also consider the part architecture plays in global warming, the harmony between landscape and architecture, and specific sites and buildings. Annotation c2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Sanda Iliescu is Associate Professor of Art and Architecture at the University of Virginia. Her paintings and drawings have been exhibited in the United States and Europe.