Glass is one of the world's oldest materials for art and, in America, one of the newest. In the United States in the last 30 years, glass has emerged as a vital component of America's visual arts. Glass, basically sand melted to a liquid with the consistency of honey, can be blown into fragile bubbles, cast into sculptural architectural components, fused, painted, carved, and engraved, to name only a few techniques in the glass artist's vocabulary. This survey includes recent examples of art in glass by 13 artists selected from more than a thousand in the United States. They follow no single trend or tradition but draw freely from the world and its visual history. Whether their art takes inspiration from Egyptian canopic jars, medieval stained-glass windows, or Venetian glass techniques, American artists working in glass use the world for their sketchbooks and are masters of their art.

A sampling of glass work by 196 artists from 28 countries.

Spectacular full-color photographs and a fascinating text trace the history of glassmaking in America, from the functional bottles, bowls, flasks, goblets, and oil lamps of colonial times to stunning pieces of contemporary glass art. 140 full-color photographs.

Reference to types of glass and the history of numerous glass houses.