-- Remarkable selection of objects that surpass the typical design associations of their day and enter into the realm of art -- First time most of these objects have been published -- Features 90 superb examples of jewelry, furniture and architecture with fascinating stories of their creation and provenance Throughout history, French artists, artisans and designers have created astonishingly beautiful decorative arts. Stuff of Dreams features 90 marvelous pieces that have surpassed all standards of tradition, craftsmanship and utility. Many of these objects possess a latent surrealistic element, linking the rich, the elegant, the elaborate, the curious and the sensuous. This publication accompanies an international exchange exhibition organized by the Portland Art Museum, which will travel to the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, Connecticut, and then to the Birmingham Museum of Art in Alabama before the artworks return to be permanently installed at the Paris Musee des Arts Decoratifs in 2003. Most of the works of art selected for this publication carry with them fascinating stories about their origins, their makers, and those persons who commissioned, collected, used or loved them.

Some of the artworks pose difficulties in interpretation, but regardless of amorphous subjects and confusing representations, Butor's creativity finds poetry in them.".

In the course of a writing career spanning half a century, Michel Butor has produced a remarkable range and volume of publications, including fiction, travel works, poetry, critical essays and various types of mixed-genre works which resist ready categorization. Much of this very diverse oeuvre is marked by his life-long passion for the visual arts. This study is the first full-length analysis of the role played by the references to the visual, plastic and architectural arts in Butor’s work. It addresses a wide range of issues including the role of the artwork, building or monument as narrative generator; the reflexive functions of the visual and architectural references; the interaction between visual/architectural references and intertextual citation; the role of collaboration in Butor’s oeuvre; the relationship between cultural baggage and the workings of the unconscious; the tension between Butor’s fascination for non-European artistic traditions and his continuing dialogue with the Western tradition.