With this month's purity theme in mind, we find that many of the works on view in Facts of Light, an exhibition at Cathouse Proper at 524 Projects, a gallery in Brooklyn run by the artist David Dixon, capture the spirit of the power of pure form in its most ephemeral manifestation — that of pure light.

Detail of an undated photo, whose maker’s name is unknown, from the vernacular-photography collection of the St. Louis-based graphic designer and collector John Foster. See his comments about a pair of photos from his trove. Each one of them, he says, “perfectly fits my idea of purity in the composition and content of a photograph.” Click here or go to the BIG PAGE to see Foster’s article.

The new documentary film Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché, directed by Celeste Bell and Paul Sng, and co-written and co-developed by Zoë Howe, vivdly recounts the life story of one of the most original and thoughtful figures of the 1970s punk-rock movement. As the leader of the band X-Ray Spex, Styrene wrote songs of trenchant social critique whose vision was something much more than the destruction-romancing, affected nihilism of her punk peers. Styrene’s personal search for authenticity is inspiring to recall. Our report features exclusive interviews with the film’s creators.

In the northernmost town in England, Tod Hanson has a vision for his Georgian-period house, whose rooms he is transforming, with boldly painted, geometric designs, into an exquisite fantasy showcase. Cathy Ward, our London-based artist-correspondent, traveled north to visit the striking site.

Peter Saul is the first major monograph about a painter who is known for skewering pop culture and political figures in a style that is equal parts Mad magazine and bold expressionism. So observes brutjournal's U.S.A. West Coast Bureau Chief Sarah Fensom in her review of this hefty new tome.