Most of the seven million people who visit the cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris each year probably do not realize that the legendary gargoyles adorning this medieval masterpiece were not constructed until the nineteenth century. The first comprehensive history of these world-famous monsters, "The Gargoyles of Notre-Dame" argues that they transformed the iconic thirteenth-century cathedral into a modern monument.
Michael Camille begins his long-awaited study by recounting architect Eugene Viollet-le-Duc s ambitious restoration of the structure from 1843 to 1864, when the gargoyles were...

Now available in a new hardback edition, Michael Camille's Image on the Edge explores that riotous realm of marginal art, so often explained away as mere decoration or zany doodles, where resistance to social constraints flourished.