The Spirit of Folk Art: The Girard Collection at the Museum of International Folk Art

Santa Fe's Museum of International Folk Art houses more than 100,000 folk artifacts gathered by architect Alexander Girard during 50 years of global collecting, a passion he pursued well before folk art became widely collected. Indiana University professor of folklore Glassie and Monteaux ( Behind the Mask in Mexico ) here unveil what they consider to be the best of Girard's trove and trace its roots to far-flung artisans still living and working, from Turkish weaver Nezihe Ozkan to Irish flutist Peter Flanagan (``a poor farm laborer, a courtly gentleman, a wildly youthful old man''). The range of material is wide, taking in ``utilitarian pottery in the North Carolina Piedmont,'' 19th-century English samplers, Rajasthani marionettes and Panamanian textiles. The book is as rich in its authoritative and anecdotal text as in its many color photographs, a study and a celebration compressed into a highly readable volume. (Sept.)