Since 1991 the city of Joliet, Illinois, has commissioned painters for a series of public murals. Free to use their own styles and follow their particular visions, the artists gave Joliet a diverse and dramatic body of public art that is also a statement of civic pride and a revival of a venerable midwestern tradition. Arrayed with color plates of the murals and accompanied by biographical sketches of the artists, this impressive volume documents the rich ethnic, racial, and cultural heritage that informs the art. An old industrial city thirty-five miles south of Chicago, Joliet has a mixed...