ロサンゼルス生まれの日系アメリカ人アーティスト、イサム・ノグチ（Isamu Noguchi）の作品集。

作者の持つ関心と生んできた作品を考察すると、彫刻がその芸術活動の中心であることに変わりはないが、家具や照明、舞台芸術、広場、中庭、そして庭園など、非常に幅広い分野に及んでいる。その美的な特質が、単純な必要性への対応から生み出されるものを十分に超越するのであれば、デザイン、工芸、いわゆる美術を区別することなく、すべてを芸術とみなすことができると作者は考えていた。

作者が創作した庭園には20世紀を代表する景観デザインがいくつもあり、全世界から広く賞賛されているが、それでも通常の造園建築の実践からはかけ離れた場所にいる。芸術家として、客観的な分析よりも研究が支えてきた直感に頼り、空間を主要な手段とする「彫刻」として風景を形作った。ランドスケープ・デザインは空間芸術であり、形式芸術であった。初期の環境計画から晩年の作品に至るまで、我々を驚かせる場所を構想し、見事に造設してきた。

本書は包括的に作者の庭園作品をまとめており、その内容や構成は多様で、数章にわたり地形、水、中庭などのテーマをまとめて扱っている。「イサム・ノグチ財団（Isamu Noguchi Foundation）」と「イサム・ノグチ庭園美術館（The Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum）」のアーカイブから抜粋した図版と自身の写真とともに「ノグチの庭園」の物語が展開される本書は、造園、美術史、庭園デザイン、そして広く美術に興味を持つ人々を納得させる一冊であろう。

While sculpture remained central to his artistic practice, Isamu Noguchi’s (1904–1988) interests and production spanned an exceptionally broad terrain that included furniture and lamps, stage sets for dance, plazas, courtyards—and gardens. Noguchi made no distinction between design, craft, and the so-called fine arts: in his view all of these could all be considered art should their aesthetic qualities sufficiently transcend those generated by the simple address of need.

Although his gardens include several of the twentieth century’s most iconic landscape designs and have received almost universal praise, Noguchi nonetheless occupies a place removed from the normal practice of landscape architecture. As an artist he relied more on intuition—bolstered by focused study where required—than on objective analysis, and he shaped his landscapes as sculpture, with space as their primary vehicle. To Noguchi landscape design was a spatial and formal art, and from his earliest environmental projects to the works of his later maturity, he succeeded in conceiving and constructing a series of remarkable places.

In this comprehensive and richly illustrated study of Noguchi's gardens, noted landscape historian Marc Treib describes and critiques projects that date from his early unrealized projects for playgrounds and monuments to a large park in Sapporo, Japan, whose construction was completed only posthumously. The story begins with the discussion of Noguchi sculpture that relate in some way to actual landscapes, then moves to the dance set designs for Martha Graham, finally entering the realm of actual landscapes with his gardens for the Reader's Digest offices in Tokyo and UNESCO House in Paris. Many more projects followed in the United States, Japan, and Israel.

Varying in their content and structure, several chapters collectively treat subjects such as landform, water, and the courtyard, while others focus on the major gardens monographically. Accompanied by stunning images from the archives of Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum archives and the author's own photographs, the story of ‘Noguchi's Gardens: Landscape as Sculpture’ will reward those interested in landscape architecture, art history, garden design, and art more broadly.