Exhibition catalogs are always difficult documents; to varying degrees, they fail to capture the feeling of the exhibition they hope to emulate. Just as any exhibition puts barriers between the work and the viewer, so, too, a catalog adds another magnitude of distance to this relationship. In the case of The Fascination of Ceramics, the catalog (2005, 240 pages, 332 Illustrations, ISBN: 3-87909-855-7) accompanying the exhibition (7 April - 28 August 2005) of the same name at the Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt, Germany, Curator of the Asian Department Stephen von der Schulenburg and photographer Marcus Müller have produced that far too rare a volume—one that is informative and extraordinarily beautiful in its documentation of the exhibition. To this end, they have shortened the distance between work and viewer as much as humanly possible.

While the accompanying essays provide good background and context for this exhibition, it is the viewing of the images, first one by one, and then en masse, that reminds the viewer that Japanese ceramics are an ever changing and growing phenomena. It is a phenomena steeped in tradition, surely, but it is clear from the range of examples and their recent dates that the field is by no means lost in its past.

The images convey the richness of the work assembled by Gisela Freudenberg and through these photographs, one glimpses parts of the vision that drove the collector for forty years. While any good photographs document the work at hand, it is unusual to find ones so honest in their presentation that the viewer/reader is given some satisfaction.

The exhibition and catalog group the Freudenberg Collection into six areas - The Living National Treasures, The Folk Kilns, The Six Ancient Kilns, The Great Individualists, Sculpturally Oriented Ceramists, and Painted Ware. As in all classification systems, they overlap; nonetheless, they provide a basic context from which to view the work.

Across these six areas, the large majority of these collected works, not unlike most contemporary Japanese studio ceramics, have their footing solidly in function, primarily in the tea ceremony. One finds innumerable examples - all unique, almost all beautiful to western eyes—of the tea bowl, water jar, tea caddy and other vessels needed for the procession. Of particular interest to this author are the examples of two fresh water jars (1987) by Isezaki Jun, the "Iga style flower vase with ear lugs" (1985) by Chûroku IV, Takahashi Shunsai's "Incense container" (1987), and Tanimoto Kôsei's "Tea bowl" (1989). Favorites are difficult to pick because they are all so good. The wide stylistic variety, not to mention virtuosity, of Tsujimura Shirô's eleven different tea bowls does stand out, however.

Sculpture is much less of an emphasis in the exhibition and its catalog. Nonetheless, the non-utilitarian works included in the collection are of the highest caliber. The stunning "Sand Bible" (around 1982), by Araki Takako and "Ceramic paper object" (around 1993) by Nishimura Yôhei are highlights. Without exception, all of these works leave little doubt that contemporary Japanese ceramic artists are at the pinnacles of the range and it is to the credit of the producers of The Fascination of Ceramics that so much can be gleaned from so far away.