Book 505

MARVEL: The Hip-Hop Covers - Vol. 1

Alex Starbuck, et al, eds.

Marvel Worldwide 2016

There is so much to like about this book. Well, maybe not the book per se, but Marvel’s hip-hop variants program. Featuring art from some industry greats (Ramos and Delgado, Noto, Del Mundo, Sienkiewicz, Stelfreeze, Deodato, Andrews, Piskor, Hughes, Maleev, et al.), preparatory sketches, and an introduction by Ta-Nehisi Coates, the inspired pairings—of not just artists and subjects, but comic characters with musicians—make this something of a triumph.

My only complaint is that since my knowledge of hip-hop is confined to the basics, it would’ve been nice if the book included the original album covers. But since the subject matter is tailor-made for the internet, here you go:

Book 504

Historical Atlas of the North American Railroad

Derek Hayes

University of California Press - 2010

So, the thing I like about this library project is that it forces me to pick up books I haven’t touched in years, and then I remember why I brought them home in the first place. Like this one. If you’re a book pack rat like me, I highly recommend it.

Derek Hayes has created a minor cottage industry with his cartography books. He’s authored at least ten of them, of which I think I have three. I’m not really a big train guy, but I am definitely a map guy. With nearly 400 railroad maps, historical photos, posters, brochures and other assorted ephemera, this is an excellent collection of how the railroad transformed the continent.

Book 503

Weighing the Planets

Olivia Parker

The Friends of Photography - 1987

One of the interesting things I learned in publishing is that authors sometimes don’t know what their work is about. What can sometimes happen is that they go into a project intending to write a specific kind of book, but they actually end up writing something different. The problem arises when they think the book they wrote is the same as the book they intended.

Which brings me to photographer Olivia Parker. I don’t know much about her, but in the artist’s statement, she makes a point to say that she won’t make an attempt to explain her work. I think that’s a good thing. Ultimately, I think it’s up to me to figure out what they’re about. Also, there’s the possibility that she may not be the best judge.

Parker’s photographs combine traditional still life and science—including measurements, maps, and diagrams—that, through the use of shadow play, art objects, and natural objects, have an unusually deep three-dimensional quality. That said, I don’t really know what they’re about, but they whisper of secrets and discovery, both personal and elemental.

Book 502

Stenberg Brothers: Constructing a Revolution in Soviet Design

Christopher Mount

The Museum of Modern Art, New York 1997

The Stenberg Brothers, Vladimir (1899–1982) and Georgii (1900–1933), are perhaps best known for designing posters for Sergei Eisenstein’s films. Their peak is an incredible body of work between 1924 and 1933 (the year Georgii tragically died in a motorcycle accident), that coincided with a revolutionary political and artistic period in Moscow. Working primarily in the constructivist style, the brothers’ visual language is stunning and, even by today’s standards, still seems radical.

Utilizing unusual color combinations, bold geometric compositions, modern typographical experiments, and Dadaist collage elements, the Stenbergs’ created some of the most graphically thrilling work of the 20th century. Considering that most of their graphic work was printed on cheap throwaway paper, it is in fact incredibly fortunate that so much of it has survived.

This book, published to accompany an exhibition at NY’s MoMA in 1997, is an excellent survey of the brothers’ work and a thrilling look into an incredibly influential era of Soviet graphic design.

Book 501

FIRE!!: Devoted to Younger Negro Artists - issue #1

Wallace Thurman, ed., in association with Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Bennett, Richard Bruce, Zora Neale Hurston, Aaron Douglas, John Davis

The FIRE!! Press 1982

Originally published in 1926, FIRE!!, a literary journal of, and for, the Harlem Renaissance was doomed from the start. But sometimes those are the best ideas. I often find that I am most impressed, most in awe of, those projects that simply have no chance. In the words of Langston Hughes, the goal of the journal was "to burn up a lot of the old, dead conventional Negro-white ideas of the past.” The editors wanted a forum where they could express the changing ideas of young African-Americans and promoted controversial ideas within the Black community, such as homosexuality, bisexuality, interracial relationships, promiscuity, and prostitution, using art, poetry, and prose that challenged the existing stylistic status quo.

No surprise then that it offended almost everyone, and only one issue was published. Already plagued by debt, poor sales, and bad reviews, the final straw was the FIRE!! office literally burning down, and they were forced to fold. This also means that there are only a precious few original copies left in existence, so this facsimile reprint is a treasure. This copy is one of a limited edition of 1,400 copies printed in 1982, and it is a relic representative of an artistic movement that was incredibly important, fertile, bold, and—most of all—brave.

Book 500

Still Life: Still Life Painting in the Early Modern Period

Norbert Schneider

Taschen 1999

Here we are—book 500. Not surprising that it should land on a book from my favorite publisher.

I love a good still life. I don’t know why. Although it probably has something to do with geometry. Or maybe fruit.

Book 499

Sertum Anglicum 1788: Facsimile with Critical Studies and a Translation

Charles-Louis L’Héritier de Brutelle

The Hunt Botanical Library 1963

The Sertum Anglicum, or An English Wreath (or Garland), and Charles-Louis L’Héritier de Brutelle is an interesting story. I’ll try to summarize. Joseph Dombey, a French botanist and explorer, was given permission by the Spanish government to collect botanical specimens in their South American colonies under the strict condition that half of the collection be turned over to Spain. When the ship holding the collection was captured by the British, the Spanish half of the collection was confiscated. Upon returning to Europe, more of the collection was lost in customs. By the time Dombey arrived back in France, the collection was greatly reduced. However, French botanists argued that the new species Dombey returned with should be described and published before being given over to the Spanish, which went against the original agreement.

L’Héritier offered to describe and publish them at his own expense, and he took possession of the collection in 1786. The Spanish, of course, objected, and at trial the French agreed to return the entire collection. Knowing he had willingly defied the Spanish and wanting to finish the work, L’Héritier fled to England. He stayed in London for 15 months until things had quieted down. After having described new botanical species being cultivated in England and adding them to the book, L’Héritier published Sertum Anglicum in 1789.

He kept the Dombey specimens in his herbarium until his death.

Book 498

The Genealogy of Greek Mythology: An Illustrated Family Tree of Greek Myth from the First Gods to the Founders of Rome

Vanessa James

Gotham Books 2003

This is one of the coolest books I own. Bound accordion style, this is a complete lineage of the Greek pantheon of gods. Seventeen feet long and printed on both sides, one side traces the entire family tree of gods starting from the infinite formlessness of Chaos, while the other side charts the lineage of the mortals, focusing mainly on the heroes of the Trojan War. Illustrated throughout with ancient art and maps and with sidebars highlighting certain personalities, relationships, and other points of interest, this is a genuinely excellent work of scholarship and design. I only wish I had more opportunities to actually use it, but it isn’t often I need to know who Hephaestus’ children are.

I will, however, put this here, because it bugs me: Pegasus is the name of a god who happens to be a horse with wings. A favorite of Athena, he is the offspring of Medusa and Poseidon (while in the form of a horse) and, along with his brother Chrysaor, sprang from Medusa’s neck when she was beheaded by Perseus. Any winged horse is not “a pegasus.” That would be like calling every huge, scaly, fire-breathing beast “a smaug.” Technically, winged horses are collectively known as pterippi, or singularly a pterippus.

Book 497

A Grammar of Japanese Ornament and Design

Thomas W. Cutler

Dover Publications 2003

Originally published in 1880 by B.T. Batsford, London, this is yet another lovely Dover reprint. This is an excellent survey of Japanese design motifs that, along with brief overviews of several Japanese art forms—including textiles, lacquer, print, ceramics, architecture, sculpture, metal work, enamel, and painting—provides some beautiful examples of geometric and nature forms in Japanese art.

I don’t usually do this, but I think the dedication should be called out. It reads, “This work is (by special permission) most respectfully dedicated to Her Royal Highness the Princess Louise, Marchioness of Lorne, by Her Royal Highness’s obedient servant, the Author.”

Book 496

Mythology: The DC Comics Art of Alex Ross

Alex Ross and Chip Kidd

Pantheon Books 2003

It’s quite appropriate that Kidd is listed as co-author of this book, because it’s every bit as much his work as it is Ross’. With a dazzling layout and design by Kidd, this is a worthy tribute to the great Alex Ross. I’m not sure there’s anything of substance I can add regarding Ross. Is there anything left to say about how Ross’ brand of photo realism redefined what comics could be, or about how his work adds an archetypal depth to every story he tells, or about how his panoramic tableaus of epic wide-screen action are worthy of the Iliad? I don’t think so. Not from me, at any rate.

For his part, Kidd is a truly great designer—an industry legend—but I do get how some people can have issues with his work. Truth is, he’s an adventurous and highly creative designer, and that can come with a price. It may seem anathema for a book designer, but Kidd’s individuality and creativity can cost clarity. For example, the copyright page of this book is practically illegible. With the text laid out in elongated rows over a profile drawing of The Flash, it’s very cool but also very tough to read. For me, it’s a fair trade, but maybe it isn’t for everyone.

Book 495

Arabian Nights: Stories Told by Scheherazade

Retold by Laurence Housman / illustrated by Edmund Dulac

Abaris Books, Inc. 1981

Featuring seven stories from Arabian Nights, including “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves” and “Aladdin and the Magic Lamp,” this book was originally published in 1907 by Hodder & Stoughton. And, again, like the last book, this book suffers from mediocre reproductions that tend to be muddy and a bit thin, but it stays until a replacement can be procured.

The thing about Dulac, though, is the life he breathes into his characters: the funny little expression on the face of a servant, the anger on the face of an enchantress, the laughter of a group of courtiers, a princess gazing into a mirror, the stately grace of an honorable woman. Certainly, the occasional racist caricature is unavoidable and cultural inaccuracies abound, but it’s the life in Dulac’s figures that one remembers—the same life that populates all of his books, whether French fairy tales, Shakespeare, Treasure Island, or Poe.

Book 494

The Sleeping Beauty and Other Fairy Tales from the Old French

Retold by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch / illustrated by Edmund Dulac

Abaris Books, Inc. 1980

It isn’t well known, but besides being one of the great book illustrators of all time, Edmund Dulac (1882-1953) was also a talented designer of stamps, bank notes, furniture, musical instruments and was a noteworthy composer and writer, but it is for book illustration that he is best remembered. Throughout his career, Dulac illustrated no fewer than 28 books, most with fantastic or adventurous themes. Two of his best known are The Sleeping Beauty and Arabian Nights.

Originally published in 1910 by Hodder & Stoughton, this book features four French fairy tales—The Sleeping Beauty, Blue Beard, Cinderella, and Beauty and the Beast—each with four illustrations by Dulac. While the illustrations are marvelous, in truth, this 80s reprint doesn’t really do them justice. The colors and line work in this edition are a bit too muddy, but until the day I’m able to replace it, it will stay as a treasured book in the library.

Book 493

Fantasy: The Golden Age of Fantastic Illustration

Brigid Peppin

New American Library 1976

This is a nice old book. Covering a period of approximately 60 years—from 1860 to 1920—this book features examples from every notable book illustrator of the golden age of illustration. From some of the greatest names of illustration—Nielsen, Rackham, Beardsley, Dulac, and Doré—to some of the great lesser-known names, such as Bull, Clarke, Burne-Jones, Detmold, and Crane, this book is an excellent treasury of fantasy illustration. But, like I said, it’s an old book, so there’s some downsides. Being a 70s paperback, the reproductions aren’t great. They’re pretty good for the 70s, but not great. The other problem with old paperbacks is that the binding glue gets brittle and is susceptible to cracking and breaking. That hasn’t happened yet with this book, but I have to handle it very carefully.

Book 492

Saltscapes: The Kite Aerial Photography of Cris Benton

Cris Benton

Heyday 2013

Cris Benton is a retired professor of architecture, who in 1995 began experimenting with kite aerial photography. In 2003, he and his kite cameras visited the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge. There, he happened upon the industrial salt evaporation ponds that have been there for over a century but were in the process of being returned to their natural state. Flying his radio-controlled kites up to 300 feet in the air over the approximately 10,000 acres of salt marches, he was able to see the incredible bacterial colors and fractal-like geometry of the evaporation ponds. The result is this book.

Many of the photographs in the book are figurative—industrial machinery, access bridges, holding tanks, and snaking rivers of brine—but occasionally Benton achieves an almost Rothko-like level of abstraction. Bands of color stretch across salt harvesting beds, contrasting colored salt marshes are separated by thin levees like the borders of a Mondrian, or a white groomed field of drying salt abuts a gently undulating waterline. As a document of one of the largest wetlands reclamation projects in America, Saltscapes is important—as art, it is occasionally dazzling.

Book 491

1300 Real and Fanciful Animals: From Seventeenth-Century Engravers

Matthäus Merian

Dover Publications 1998

Another excellent Dover book. Matthäus Merian the Younger (1621-1687), a painter, published this fascinating collection of 1,300 engravings of animals and legendary beasts, Theatrum universale omnium Animalium, in Frankfurt in 1653. The thing I like best about this collection is its organization. There are six sections—quadrupeds, snakes, mollusks and crustaceans, fish, birds, and insects—but absolutely no attempt to differentiate between real and fictional beasts. Gryphons appear with warthogs, manticores are with the lions, hydras are right next to squids, and so on. Whether that’s because he didn’t know they were mythological or didn’t care, I have no idea, but it’s neat.

Book 490

Russian Legends: Folk Tales and Fairy Tales

Patty Wageman, ed.

Groninger Museum/NAi Publishers 2007

Published to accompany an exhibition by the same title at the Groninger Museum in the Netherlands in 2007-08, this is a very cool book. With six essays by various curators and scholars and more than 90 illustrations, almost all in full color, by six famed artists working during the late-nineteenth to the early-twentieth centuries, this is an excellent look at interpretations of Russian folk and fairy tales. Featuring summaries of key tales and art by the great Ivan Bilibin (including one of my favorite pieces from “Vasilisa the Fair”), the marvelously expressionistic Elena Polenova, the wide-ranging boldness of Vasily Kandinsky, Viktor Vasnetsov, Mikhail Vrubel, and Nikolai Roerikh, this is an excellent look at a seldomly examined subject.

Book 489

The Complete Alice & The Hunting of the Snark

Lewis Carroll / illustrated by Ralph Steadman

Salem House Publishers 1987

Once upon a time, it was my ambition to collect editions of Alice by renowned illustrators. They’re two of my favorite books, so I thought it would be a cool collection to curate. But at some point, I realized that this could end up becoming not only a large collection but also potentially a very expensive one, too.

I still have a few from the collection, but I’ve gotten rid of a bunch. This is one of the few I kept. The strange thing is that I’m not much of a Ralph Steadman fan. It’s just not really my thing. His work is very much of its time, and maybe that’s what I like about this. His Alice comes across a bit like Eric Idle in drag. His Chester Cat looks like a caricature of a Conservative Party politician, which it probably is. His horse-like Hatter wears Union Jack glasses, Walkman headphones, and a bowler hat with a note that—instead of “in this style 10/6”—reads, “Can you come back next week.”

It’s all very very British. Perhaps that’s why I keep it around. There’s a case to be made, I think, that Steadman’s Alice is, in spirit, the most similar to Tenniel’s original.