Pots have existed across the world and in different cultures for thousands of years. This volume explores how contemporary makers use the ancient language of the pot to convey contemporary ideas, from the sculptural and painterly to the ecological and satirical. This beautifully produced book is a visually rich and critically in-depth focus on the work of twenty-four potters. A companion volume to Contemporary British Ceramics: Beneath the Surface, it reveals how pots can be extraordinarily powerful forms of expression.

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This book takes on the debate around what makes ceramics an art form and how it has developed. The ‘vessel’, it seems, is a contentious word in ceramics. The book has noted, debates surrounding the validity of the term reveal ‘tensions about the relative value of the pot, the vessel and the object, and the status between the useful and the useless in the art world. The debate as to whether ceramics should be regarded as ‘art’ or ‘craft’ . A very thoughtful read.