Grandma Prisbrey's Bottle Village documents one of American vernacular architecture's most singular achievements: a self-built village of recycled glass bottles, sculptures, and walkways constructed in Southern California between 1956 and 1972 by an untrained artist with 17,000 pencils to house.
About This Book
Tressa "Grandma" Prisbrey began building her bottle village not from architectural ambition but from practical necessity — a home for her pencil collection. What emerged over sixteen years was a body of vernacular architecture that defies easy categorisation: colourful bottle-glass buildings, sculptural walkways, and an essayistic site plan with autobiographical depth. Severely damaged by the 1994 Northridge earthquake, the village survives partly in remnants and partly in Prisbrey's own written account. This bilingual artist's book pairs the original English essay with the first German translation, produced by Berlin-Vienna artist Kathi Hofer, framing Prisbrey's writing as a genuine contribution to the art discourse of the 1960s rather than mere folk curiosity.
Key Features
- 120 pages of documentary, archival, and essayistic content including Prisbrey's original site plan and building drawings
- First German translation of Prisbrey's essay by artist Kathi Hofer, presented as a bilingual artist's book
- Published by Spector Books, 1981
What You'll Discover
- How Prisbrey's bottle constructions challenge the boundary between outsider art, vernacular architecture, and environmental sculpture
- The role of material salvage and recycled glass in producing a distinctive structural and chromatic language
- Prisbrey's own essayistic building and site plan, read here as an autobiographical document with art-historical significance
- The editorial and translation practice behind artist Kathi Hofer's framing of Prisbrey's legacy as an "artist's artist's book"
About the Author
Kathi Hofer (b. 1981, Hallein, Austria) is an artist based in Berlin and Vienna. Her work on this volume includes the first German translation of Tressa Prisbrey's essay, presented alongside the original English text in a bilingual format. Tressa "Grandma" Prisbrey (1896–1988) was an artist, collector, essayist, and planner who lived in Simi Valley, California.
Specifications
- Format: Hardcover
- Pages: 120
- Dimensions: 140 x 220 mm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9783959054034
- Publisher: Spector Books
- Publication Date: 1981
Perfect For: Architects and designers drawn to vernacular and self-built traditions, scholars of outsider art and environmental sculpture, and readers interested in the intersection of autobiography, material culture, and spatial practice.