Salvador Dalí's Dream of Venus
Subtitle: the surrealist funhouse from the 1939 World's Fair
By: Ingrid Schaffner ; photographs by Eric Schaal.
Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press
Published: 2002
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 159
Subjects: Dalí, Salvador, -- 1904-1989.; Dalí, Salvador, -- 1904-1989 -- Criticism and interpretation.; Schaal, Eric.; Installations (Art) -- New York (State) -- New York.; Surrealism -- Exhibitions.
Genres: Exhibitions.
Other titles: Dream of Venus
Description: "Life magazine wrote that one funhouse at the 1939 New York World's Fair stood out among the others: Salvador Dali's Dream of Venus.".

"The building's modern expressionist exterior, with an entrance framed by a woman's legs, and shocking interior, including the bare-breasted "living liquid ladies" who swam inside the tanks, was a controversial sensation. The funhouse was so successful that it reopened for a second season after the fair closed. But once torn down it faded from memory, and its outlandishness became the stuff of urban myth.

Now, more than sixty years later, a collection of Dream of Venus images by noted photographer Eric Schaal has been discovered and presented here in its depth and beauty. In stunning black-and-white and early Kodachrome, the photographs show both the construction and the completion of the funhouse - from Dali painting a melting clock to showgirls parading for their audience.

Salvador Dali's Dream of Venus reveals not only a mind-boggling work of architecture, but also a unique creation by one of the most fertile imaginations of the twentieth century."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 154-159).
Table of contents: title: Walking the dream; title: Locating the dream; title: Plotting the dream; title: Finding the dream; title: Funding the dream; title: Dal-̕niating the dream; title: Censoring the dream; title: Realizing the dream; title: Unveiling the dream; title: Repressing the dream; title: Analyzing the dream; title: Performing the dream; title: Ending the dream.