Okay, I can't count: this list contains not ten but fourteen pieces from the show that I consider my favorites. I have all kinds of disclaimers to make about it. First off, I consider all such lists dumb—but fun. They're also risky, especially when dealing with the work of people who are colleagues and in many cases good friends. I've gone ahead with it because it's good to provoke. It'd be great if it stirred up discussion, especially if it inspired others to make competing lists. More than that, it gives me an opportunity to share a few thoughts on why I champion (and myself make) the kind of works here. My hope is that in doing this, I may help others appreciate them for the first time, or deepen the appreciation they already have.

I should also say that I omitted sequences as well as works I discuss in my overview. And I picked no more than one work per author. I am positive that I simply missed a lot of works that deserve a place on my list. (I was handicapped, too, in that I chose from jpg reproductions of most of the works, not from having seen them in person, close up.) Another consideration I have to acknowledge is my bias toward the work of people I know. I claim that's because (1) I know it better than the work of people I don't know, and thus find it easier to like, and (2) an important reason many of my friends in the art are that is that their art seems to me superior.

Something that needs to be emphasized, by the way, is that I consider these pieces favorites of mine, but not necessarily the best works in the show. Sometimes it just comes about that I like some unambitious work better than a more ambitious work that I consider objectively its better. I do believe all fourteen pieces on my list will make it onto most lists of lasting works that start appearing three or four decades from now. I hope you will agree with me after viewing them.

Before I sign off, a suggestion: that others take advantage of the availability of the pieces in the collection as a whole via cut&pasting, and make their own lists of favorites. Perhaps Big Bridge editor will agree to have a file for them in his publication, or—at least—links to them.