Is it Art?

Every bit counts: Based on poet Rainer Maria Rilke’s ideas of the otherworldly depth, significance and beauty to be found in the ordinary and overlooked minutiae of life, the book Speck: A Curious Collection of Uncommon Things is one beautiful experiment. Sample scanned objects include cat whiskers, lint, “lost pet” signs (see picture above), the backs of paintings and the scribbled notes found in a 1966 highschool yearbook from Louisiana. Edited by Peter Buchanan-Smith, art director of The New York Times Op-Ed page, and collected by artists of various ilk (including Harpers art director Angela Richers and New Yorker artist Maira Kalman), the entries are strangely touching in their very human intricacy.

Princeton Architectural Press/Raincoast Books, $25. :