Public Sculpture in New Jersey: Monuments to Collective Identity

New Jersey boasts more than 700 public sculptures. When viewed as a group, these works give us great insights about who helped to shape New Jersey, what events we considered significant, and how we hope we will be remembered. Public Sculpture in New Jersey examines 150 years of past and current patterns in the commissioning and placement of outdoor art in the Garden State.The book contains essays that profile the state’s 100 most significant works as well as the artists who created them, and features nearly 100 magnificent photographs that document these works, capturing the effects of time and the environment on each sculpture. Bzdak and Petersen selected these works for the variety of stories they tell and for their range of artistic expression, from traditional to contemporary, rather than focusing only on the best known or most visible works of public sculpture. By telling the stories behind the sculptures, the book captures New Jersey’s history, especially history that may not be well known but that conveys significant information about how our predecessors lived and the official images they sought to leave behind.