Beyond bling : contemporary jewelry from the Lois Boardman collection

This important collection of contemporary jewelry, recently donated to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, reveals how studio jewelers have transformed the medium by confronting social issues and exploring new technologies and unconventional materials.

Consisting of over 300 objects from the United States, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, the collection is by turns edgy, experimental, and even disturbing.

Objects range from a necklace featuring a gold cast of a rodent skull to a ring made from a hand- wrought, white-gold nail, bent and thrust through a large smoky quartz.

With hundreds of new images and five incisive essays, the book brings this little-known collection to light.