Boundaries
by Maya Lin
Simon & Schuster, 2000

"Even my earliest work was influenced by geology and topology. I saw the Vietnam Veterans Memorial not as an object placed into the earth but as a cut in the earth that has then been polished, like a geode. Interest in the land and concern about how we are polluting the air and water of the planet are what make me want to travel back in geologic time—to witness the shaping of the earth before man."
—Smithsonian magazine

Maya Lin is an artist and an architect, an intensely private person who has created profoundly moving public memorials including the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., and the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama. She first found fame as the young Asian-American student at Yale whose anonymous entry was selected in 1982 to create the now beloved Veterans Memorial. At the time, however, her design was the focus of a political firestorm; her introduction to public life was bruising and fast.

She persevered, moving beyond the politics to concentrate on her art. A 1995 documentary on her life and work won an Oscar. Now Maya Lin tells us about her life and work in her own words in her first book, an artistic autobiography called Boundaries.

Maya Lin has said, "I like to think of my work as a creating a public conversation with each person, no matter how public each work is and no matter how many people are present."

About the author
Maya Lin has worked on art and architectural projects throughtout the United States. Setting up her studio in 1987, Lin has created both public and private artworks, including the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (1982) in Washington, D.C.; the Civil Rights Memorial (1989) in Montgomery, Alabama; and the Langston Hughes Library (1999) in Clinton, Tennessee, among others.

Her work has been highly acclaimed; a documentary about her work, Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision, won an Academy Award for Best Documentary in 1995. Born in Athens, Ohio, and educated at Yale University, she lives with her family in New York City.