Nancy and I represent Belle's work, so naturally I am going to say you should see this exhibit. And you should! Because it is always interesting to see the original illustrations for a book, to gauge how the words in the book change the look and feel of the image from watercolor paper or canvas to the printed page. When the context changes, the feel of the piece changes. In the first half and middle of the 20th Century, illustrations for book and magazines were often tossed out or destroyed after the book or magazine was published. Many people now feel terrible about this, for reasons of loss and/or greed. Imagine if you had owned the original, say, Norman Rockwell, painting for a Saturday Evening Post cover, and had disposed of it; well, you got rid of something that would probably go at auction today for several million dollars. Or, let us say, you'd had in your possession one of the original drawings for an illustrated edition of Jack London's ``Call of the Wild,'' say John Thornton embracing his dog Buck, and you carelessly got rid of it or lost it; I have no idea what the monetary value of the piece might be, but there would be _ or should be - a sense of loss. Great writers from Dickens on have depended heavily on the talents of illustrators. When John Steinbeck was approached about helping select an artist to illustrate ``Cup of Gold,'' he told the publishers he didn't want to get involved, he trusted their taste. As it happened, he didn't like the illustrations for that book, and from then on became involved in artist selection for his novels, beginning with Peggy Worthington Best's illustrations of a special edition of ``Tortilla Flat.'' Many of Willa Cather's great novels of the plains are illustrated by haunting woodcuts that definitely deepen the mood of isolation and loneliness. I think in London's case, the illustrations helped kids get into the books, helped make them readers. Artist-illustrators, I think, often take something away from the writers they illustrate. Maynard Dixon, arguably the greatest of all artists of the American West, early on financed his way illustrating magazines and books, in the process rubbing shoulders, if not exchanging ideas, with some of the important writers of his time. One of our artists, Warren Chang, spent some years in New York illustrating 200 books. He is now a ``fine artist,'' and one of his favorite themes is the fieldworkers of California. Of course, he admits, that theme had in part been inspired by the writings of John Steinbeck _ writers and artists, they can learn from each other. And they can work together.