NONFICTION - Jan. 11, 1987

AMERICAN CRAFT TODAY: POETRY OF THE PHYSICAL, introduction by Paul J. Smith, essay by Edward Lucie-Smith (American Craft Museum: $40; 328 pp.; 285 illustration, 130 in color) means to revive the contemporary craft scene that has languished since the ‘60s. The attractive picture book is also the catalogue for the American Craft Museum’s inaugural show, which will appear at the Laguna Art Museum, Aug. 7 to Oct. 4. Most of the names are familiar in this national survey and so are the ideas, but they are elegantly presented.