MetaFilter posts tagged with Books and art

Cut-ups, op art and book design

mediareport — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 16:42:23 -0800

The Art of Fontana Modern Masters James Pardey, the mind behind The Art of Penguin Science Fiction, has just put up another site telling the story of the cover art on the Frank Kermode-edited "Modern Masters" Fontana Books series, inspired by the Op Art of Victor Vasarely and the cut-ups of Brion Gysin and William Burroughs. [via, via] Victor Vasarely's (needlessly complex) official site Vasarely on Wikipedia 2006 Guardian Kermode interview The "next page" button at the top moves you past the blank folder covers at the Fontana site.

The Kitsune Noir Poster Club

You Should See the Other Guy — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 09:11:05 -0800

The Kitsune Noir Poster Club "feature[s] curated prints by all kinds of artists & designers creating around central themes." Current designs are for Infinite Jest (by Cody Hoyt), Moby Dick (by Mark Weaver), Slaughterhouse 5 (by Frank Chimero), Walden (by Jez Burrows), and The Road by Garrett Vander Leun. From Bobby Solomon's Kitsune Noir Art & Design Blog and Society6.

It's real! You can touch it!

You Should See the Other Guy — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 06:49:17 -0800

Remember Paper is a blog with photos of interesting magazines, books, and other paper-based ephemera. NSFW.

Tell me of your homeworld, Usul

Artw — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:03:19 -0800

Chris Foss concept art for Dune, with bonus Nostromo. The images were produced for Alejandro Jodorowsky's 1974 attempt at filming the story, with other artists involved including Moebius and HR Giger. Though the project failed Jodorowsky collaborated further with Moebius to lay the groundwork for his own Dune-like comicbook universe (and a trailer for an animated version of it was even created). More visions of Arrakis can be seen on this page of Dune cover artwork through the ages, with bonus midi Toto.

Book 'em, Mikey!

You Should See the Other Guy — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 22:33:10 -0800

Mike Stilkey paints on books.

Novel Graphics

dersins — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 10:00:29 -0800

"A few months ago, I got an email from Paul Buckley, the wonderful art director at Penguin Classics, who asked if I wanted to illustrate a book cover for him..." Illustrator Michael Cho on designing a cover for Don Delillo's White Noise as part of the Penguin Graphic Classics series, in which prominent comic artists and illustrators create covers for literary classics. All the covers can be found in this flickr set, including Daniel Clowes’s Frankenstein, Candide illustrated by Chris Ware, and Frank Miller's (kind of disappointing) cover for Gravity's Rainbow.

The pictures and sketches of JRR Tolkien

nthdegx — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 12:01:53 -0800

The pictures and sketches of JRR Tolkien

Vintage Kids' Stuff

PhoBWanKenobi — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 08:18:54 -0800

Illustrator Glen Mullaly archives hundreds of vintage illustrations in his flickr stream. Featuring work by Alice and Martin Provensen, Robert J. Lee, Charley Harper, Jack Tremblay, Jerry Smath and Dan Lawler, among others.

Ptak's Science Book Blog

Rumple — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:57:27 -0800

The blog associated with Ptak's online science bookstore is an absolutely fascinating, frequently-updated tour through historical, social, and scientific miscellany extracted from unusual books in the collection of the author, John Ptak. To give a flavour of the breadth of the mini-essays on his blog, consider: Maps of Lunar Nothingness Map of Missing People of Central Europe and Russia, 1881 (Both from the thread, Maps of Blank and Missing Things) Women Meat Pioneers (from the thread Impossible Titles) Seeing Renaissance Pillows: a Short Bit on an Unnecessary Topic (from the thread Prints: looking HARD/deeply at) Things People Did Underground (from the thread History of Technology). History of Normalcy, Part 1: "Girls" (from the thread militaria)

Online Gallery and Visual Archive

netbros — Sat, 16 May 2009 05:33:24 -0800

Blanka is a collection of original, vintage, and limited edition posters and prints.

A Temple of Texts

mattbucher — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 10:27:54 -0800

William Gass's personal library. The photos accompany this article by Gass about his love of books -- specifically about collecting them over his life and "living in a library." Now in my own home I am surrounded by nearly 20,000 books, few of them rare, many unread, none of them neglected. They are there, as libraries always are, to help when needed, and who knows what writer I shall have to write on next, what subject will become suddenly essential, or what request will arrive that requires the immediate assistance of books on—well—libraries, or the language of animals or the pronunciation of Melanesian pidgin, since my essays tend to be assigned, not simply solicited, and because I am easily seduced by new themes. I can actually say a few things in Melanesian pidgin, none of them polite.

The Giving Tree

the_bone — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 22:21:11 -0800

The Giving Tree (1973), animated short based on Shel Silverstein's 1964 children's story and narrated by the author. Once you're done crying, here are a few related links: The Giving Tree: A Symposium (a collection of thoughts on the story by some American religion scholars.) The Misgiving Tree (a parody) A couple of parody videos: "The Really, Really Giving Tree" and "The Taking Boy"

Modern video games covers as classic books

ColdChef — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 18:13:30 -0800

Modern video game covers reimagined as Classic Books.

Greylock Arts curated webcomics exhibit

mediareport — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 09:04:23 -0800

A curated collection of web comics over at Greylock Arts, with creator interviews and lots of links to strips like Underwire, Persimmon Cup, Truth Serum, Wondermark, The Process, Amazing Facts...and Beyond!, Phil McAndrew and more, including a few previously featured on the blue. [via Bookslut]

The Book Cover Archive

Rumple — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 12:16:51 -0800

The Book Cover Archive presents "an archive of book cover designs and designers for the purpose of appreciation and categorization". via

Don't hit the books; craft with them

orange swan — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 16:57:51 -0800

So, you have some old books lying around you don’t read and that you're pretty sure no one else will ever read because they have pages missing or they’re hopelessly outdated technical manuals or they never should have been published in the first place. What to do? As always, crafting is an option. You can make a wrist cuff, or a purse. Book covers can be made into clocks, or photo frames, or photo and card stands. They can become CD and DVD cases, or a hiding place for valuables or necessary contraband, Shawshank Redemption-style. You can make yourself a diary, notecards, envelopes, or gift tags. If you’re feeling more artistic than practical, some people use the pages from a book as a canvas. Artist Su Blackwell brings scenes from her books to life: check out Alice’s Tea Party, or this scene from The Snow Queen. Personally I feel strangely drawn to this piece. Noriko Ambe sculpts with his books; Stefano Arienti created this installation, and Brian Dettmer took a scalpel to his and did some “Book Autopsies”. There are more ideas for things to be done with books to be found here and here. And will you die-hard book lovers kindly stop screaming. It’s not like I wrote a post on how to craft with your mother. Yet.

Artists' Books Online

Kattullus — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 05:33:43 -0800

Artists' Books Online is a collection by the University of Virginia of artists' books. Artists' books are works of art that take the form of books and are often both text and visual art. Either way, they're awful interesting to look at. Here are some artbooks to get you started: How to Humiliate Your Peeping Tom by Susan Baker, The Word Made Flesh by Johanna Drucker, Life in a Book by Francois Deschamps, A.A.A.R.P. by Clifton Kirkpatrick Meador, opuntia is just another name for a prickly pear by Todd Walker and Black Dog White Bark by Erica Van Horn

Fantastic art by John Jude Palencar

mediareport — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 18:04:24 -0800

Just some cool dark fantasy art by John Jude Palencar, including covers for Lovecraft, de Lint, Tolkien and other popular books.

The Texture of Time

mattbucher — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 11:33:15 -0800

Nabokov and the Moment of Truth. VN talks about metaphors of time, great books, and reads the first line of Lolita. “I’ve been perplexed and amused by fabricated notions about so-called Great Books. That, for instance, Mann’s asinine Death in Venice, or Pasternak’s melodramatic, vilely written Doctor Zhivago, or Faulkner’s corncobby chronicles can be considered masterpieces, or at least what journalists term Great Books, is to me the same sort of absurd delusion as when a hypnotized person makes love to a chair.”

A blog about Japanese photography seen from abroad.

chunking express — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 08:38:20 -0800

A blog about Japanese photography seen from abroad. The site hasn't been updated in quite some time, but it is still full of a lot of interesting stuff.

Literary oddities

desjardins — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 21:51:21 -0800

Unusual books. Unusual art made from books. Unusual bookcover. Unusual bookshelves. Unusual bookstore.

On this day of resurrection...

kliuless — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 07:22:16 -0800

Speaking of speeches, David Eggers delivers one at TED on grassroots community tutoring for kids who need help with their English homework: "There's something about the kids finishing their homework in a given day, working one on one, getting all this attention. They finish their homework, they go home -- they're finished. They don't stall. They don't do their homework in front of the TV. They're allowed to go home 5:30, enjoy their family, enjoy other hobbies, get outside, play and that makes a happy family. A bunch of happy families in a neighborhood is a happy community. A bunch of happy communities tied together is a happy city and a happy world, right? So, the key to it all is homework." Love him or hate him (mefi consensus) it's a great example of ~~nervous energy~~ microphilanthropy, social entrepreneurship and, if I may make the connection, machines of loving grace. [previously]

Pulp Fiction Cover Art With Girls.

Rumple — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 00:52:37 -0800

Good Girl Art is defined as "A cover illustration depicting an attractive young woman, usually in skimpy or form-fitting clothing, and designed for (mild erotic interest)[sic]. There have been several prior posts on pulp fiction cover art (1, 2, 3); this site focuses on the "good girls" usefully organized into categories such as "Swamp Babes", Ringside Jezebels, Crazy!, Vietnam Vixens, and Peeping Toms. via

Beat Generation Cover Scans

dhammond — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 15:52:17 -0800

Book nerds everywhere will enjoy these scans of cover art from the works of Beat Generation authors William S. Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, Neal Cassady, and John Clellon Holmes. CDN: Burroughs, Kerouac, Cassady, Holmes

Alices in Wonderlands

carsonb — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 12:44:41 -0800

Alice illustrations other than Tenniel Favorites so far: Tove Jansson Khodozhnik S. Goloshchapov Debbie Boon-Jenkins Some Previously/Related stuff [filler; stuffing]: Alice In Civil War Land posted by Marxchivist EAT ME: Alice's Adventures Under Ground posted by Pretty_Generic The Database of Mid-Victorian Wood-engraved Illustration posted by thomas j wise The children's book illustrators archive posted by OmieWise