As the Modernist dream of a world purged of archaic decor and ornamentation recedes we should remember that the diet of a raw, umediated universe has always unsettled Homo Sapiens. This books looks at some of these mediations: How do we transform the stuff of the world and impart it with familiarity? How do pets come to be invested with pleasing form? How did provocative woman? And why is oil paint the ultimate "plastic" material, capable of mimicking everything under the sun - and a few other things besides? Taking its inspiration from Gaston Bachelard's idea of a material imagination, this book looks beyond the labour that ensures physical survival to the elaboration of the world into forms that accommodate our collective desires.