Entropy By Diane Tuft

Since 1998, mixed-media artist Diane Tuft has traveled the world recording the environmental factors shaping the Earth’s changing landscape. Entropy, Tuft’s fourth monograph, focuses specifically on water and its radical transformation under the unrelenting pressures of climate change. Featuring an exquisite selection of photographs and haikus woven throughout, this book provides a startling yet captivating glimpse into the beauty we stand to lose.

Encompassing science, aesthetics, and a dramatic call to action, Entropy highlights coastal regions across the globe that are imminently threatened or already impacted by sea-level rise, from the Florida Keys and Bangladesh to the Chesapeake Bay and the Marshall Islands. To juxtapose her haunting images of coastline deterioration and flooding, Tuft also chronicles the current state of Utah’s Great Salt Lake, whose water is rapidly depleting and desertifying. This evocative collection of images showcases Tuft’s expertise in capturing these stunning—and at once alarming—landscapes, each of which present a vivid array of vibrant colors intensified by the abundance of ultraviolet light. Through this photographic exploration, the photographs featured in Entropy radiate with otherworldly, alluring hues.


Entropy includes an introduction written by Tuft which contextualizes her practice and her efforts to encapsulate the dynamic relationship between the environment and human impact. “Through my lens, I am driven to confront the consequences of our actions and to embrace the urgent need for change,” Tuft writes, “Earth’s fragile balance depends on water.” Compelling essays by prominent figures in art and science contributed by Bonnie K. Baxter, Ph.D., and Stacey Epstein, Ph.D., add further depth and insight to Tuft’s work and its significance in the context of climate change.

Packaged in a luxe, cloth-wrapped hardcase screenprinted with Tuft’s artwork Journey’s End, Entropy is a bold call to arms inspiring collective action for the critical preservation of nature. It is, as Tuft writes, “a visual reminder of the delicate equilibrium we must strive to restore.”



About the Authors
Diane Tuft exhibits and lectures at institutions across the globe. Her work is included in such esteemed collections as the Whitney Museum of American Art; Nevada Museum of Art; International Center of Photography; and Parrish Art Museum, as well as many private collections. Tuft’s previous publications include UNSEEN: Beyond the Visible Spectrum (2009); Gondwana: Images of an Ancient Land (2014) and The Arctic Melt: Images of a Disappearing Landscape (2017). Tuft is also an award-winning producer of multiple short films, including Coastal Requiem (2019). She lives and works in New York City.

Bonnie K. Baxter, Ph.D. is Professor of Biology at Westminster College, and is founder and director of Great Salt Lake Institute, which serves to connect people to Great Salt Lake through research and education.

Stacey Epstein, Ph.D.is a specialist in twentieth-century American art and founder of Stacey Epstein Fine Art, where she advises auction houses, museums, corporate collections, artist foundations, and estates.

About Monacelli
As a leading publisher of illustrated books for more than twenty-five years, Monacelli has challenged the conventions of publishing to produce provocative, inspiring, and essential titles. Founded in 1994 by Gianfranco Monacelli, the organization has released nearly 600 books on architecture, art, interior design, landscape and gardens, photography, and the applied arts. Monacelli’s books have been made in collaboration with prominent practitioners and scholars ever since its inaugural title, the groundbreaking S,M,L,XL by Rem Koolhaas and Bruce Mau. In 2015, the applied arts imprint Monacelli Studio was launched, adding elevated books on art instruction, photography technique, and crafts to the publisher’s roster. In 2020, Monacelli joined the Phaidon family of companies.