Inventing Abstraction: 1910-1925 by Leah Dickerson and others (Thames & Hudson/MoMA: $75). This invaluable and comprehensive new book by the Curator in the Department of Painting and Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art accompanies the landmark exhibit currently on view there. It examines the key artists, artworks, events and issues and their influences that were involved in early history of abstraction. Both the book and the exhibition take a fresh and incisive look at abstract art in its earliest phase, the critical period of its first fifteen years.