Book excerpt: For the past 30 years, American artist Chuck Close (b. 1940) has concentrated on essentially one subject: the human face. This volume, the most comprehensive assessment of Close's work yet published, includes portraits of Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein, Alex Katz, Lucas Samaras, and others. It accompanies a mid-career retrospective opening at The Museum of Modern Art, New York in February 1998. 178 illustrations, 113 in color.