Few aficionados of American folk or self-taught art will open this book and fail to recognize many of the artists whose dynamic work is represented here. At the same time readers will delight in the discovery of new works and new artists in the astonishing collection of Ellin and Baron Gordon. As two of the most passionate collectors of this vibrant, original art, they and their collection are well known to appreciators and scholars as well as to many museums that have mounted exhibitions devoted to American artists classifed as "self-taught", "naive", "folk", "outsider", or "other".

Featured here are works by Howard Finster, Mose Tolliver, Leroy Archuleta, Thornton Dial, Inez Nathaniel Walker, Miles Carpenter, Israel Litwak, and many others from across America. For those who wish to learn more about the lives and work of these twentieth-century artists, biographical sketches of seventy-eight are included here.

The works reproduced in full-color embody the aesthetic sensibilities of the artists at the moment of creation. They function as a guide to appreciation of this richly imaginative and often provocative art that is known for its innovation, for removing boundaries, and for separation of what has gone before.

Essays by Gordon, Luck, and Patterson bring fresh insight into the environments and experiences that have influenced the makers' creations.