O Glorious City: A Love Letter to San Francisco

This is a fun book of images of San Francisco. There are a number of line drawings of the dome of its City Hall, some sitting as hats on some of its mayors. The author, who is the illustrator has a live connection with the government and its main building, and this book is a kind of paen to that love. But with a sense of humor, and with additions to photographs that humanize them in an almost cock-eyed way.

This book starts off with a beautiful explanation of the author/Illustrator Jeremy fish and the project that led to this book. About how Jeremy fish was approached to create 100 drawings in 100 days to commemorate the city halls 100 year celebration.
This book has beautiful, simplistic sketches. All with the amazing theme of San Francisco. Many of the pictures have very simple perfectly planned explanations as well. A very good book for artists, travelers or anyone really!

This is a gorgeous coffee table book celebrating the art of San Francisco! I love the heavy dark green cover and gold foil illustration- quite striking! It reads like a tour of a very fun, hip art museum with black and white prints of the city's art paired with concise, informative descriptions. It's a great resource for art enthusiasts and would make a great gift! I certainly want to visit San Francisco now more than ever before!

This is a beautifully made book, hardcover with gilt on the cover. Fish was recently an official artist-in-residence at SF's City Hall, and this book is the result of his time there. His illustrations are very much in the coloring book style, and I found little of interest here. Drawing faces on building domes just isn't that clever.

O Glorious City - A Love Letter to San Francisco, by Jeremy Fish, touted to be a "beloved local artist", left me nonplused when my review copy arrived a week ago. The "art" is less art than cartoons that are not much more than line drawings. The meager text in support of this "art" does little to add to the vast blank spaces that are the books primary feature, let alone a better understanding of the city of San Francisco, its people or its history. The composit cartoons of real places decorated with the "art" of Mr. Fish may be an attempt at humor or satire, but it mostly comes across as juvenile and some are in bad taste. The high point of the book comes with the renditions of the decorative details of the interior of city hall. But show more again, is that art or artful copying?

A glorious city it is, albeit in steep decline due to its social and political climate. Unfortunately, Mr. Fish's book is an illustration of that decline in art, in literature and even in fiscal management, considering that the book was financed with public dollars by the San Francisco Arts Commission. show less

This book starts off with a beautiful explanation of the author/Illustrator Jeremy fish and the project that led to this book. About how Jeremy fish was approached to create 100 drawings in 100 days to commemorate the city halls 100-year celebration.
This book has beautiful, simplistic sketches. All with the amazing theme of San Francisco. Many of the pictures have very simple perfectly planned explanations as well. A very good book for artists, travelers or anyone really!

Great coffee table book. Love San Francisco and this book captures the feel of the city. Wonderfully put together book by a great local artist.