QUIRKY BOOKS FOR DULL DAYS
Some books are dissimilar to other books (and a good thing, too). A few examples:
"Wednesday, May 7th: Two of them came today, dragged me out of my cage and put me in some kind of improvised maze made out of books and old toilet tubes. A labyrinth with no escape. They were treating it like some kind of game, laughing and squealing as I desperately scrabbled from blind alley to blind alley, but I knew it was no game. They're trying to crush my will, to grind me down. They can take my freedom, but they will never take my soul."
A pitch perfect spoof both on Ladybird books and on modern art.
"'Is the art pretty?' says Susan. 'No,' says Mummy, 'Pretty is not important.'John does not understand. 'It is good not to understand," says Mummy. John doesn't understand. John sees the painting. 'I could paint that.' says John. But you didn't,' says Mummy."
Also available in the Dung Beetle Reading Scheme: We Go Out and We Learn at Home. Funny.
On each page of this book, an object is presented with an accompanying photograph of the maker and text explaining the purpose of the object. The objects themselves as a photo essay are compelling, but it is in the text that the passion for making, for creating from scratch or for cannibalising other objects, and the pleasure and pride in creating a successful and useful object is revealed.The aesthetic of these objects is clumsy, quirky and oddly appealing, reminding us that there is a place for the home-made, for folk art in a time of slick, mass production.
A book of 26 quirky postcards by the outstandingly wry architectural artist, each interpreting an architect's work as the letter of the alphabet with which her or his name begins. Perfect for modern architecturophiles.
>> Babina's other work is also work is worth perusing.
An alphabetical phantasmagoria in which a succession of infants meet dreadful ends.
>> Watch! Listen!
The fascinating thing about the Soviet era bus stops is their individualistic nature, compared with the larger prescribed buildings of this period. They reflect the whims of their architects and the personalities of their local communities - many incorporate regional folk design in their decorative elements. A perfect book for the Soviet era architecture/design/aesthetic enthusiast.
Wonderful examples of how the Soviet scarcity aesthetic lingered even into the 1990s. For a similar book on New Zealand shops: The Shops by Peter Black and Steve Braunias.
Hundreds of the bards most powerfully insulting words in a fun, flip book format. Just add 'thou' before any of the 157,464 different insult combinations and you'll be ready to set dullards and miscreants in their place.
Can anyone guess what the old man with the red beard and slippers is thinking about as he eats his bottomless bowl of junket? Many people guess (and what guesses!), but what happens when a young boy on a tricycle gets the right answer?
Three classic Soviet-era children's books by leading avant-garde writers and illustrators, newly translated.
Ortberg retrofits the classics with cellphones.Very clever.
Anna Pallai was brought up on 1970s stalwarts of stuffed peppers, meatloaf and platters of slightly greying hardboiled eggs. When she rediscovered her mother's grease-stained 70s cookbooks, she knew she needed to share them with the world. All the illustrations in this nauseating book come from authentic (non-satirical) cook books.
In 1966 the artist Tom Phillips discovered A Human Document (1892), an obscure Victorian romance by W.H. Mallock, and set himself the task of altering every page, by painting, collage or cut-up techniques, to create an entirely new version. Some of Mallock's original text remains in tact and through the illustrated pages the character of Bill Toge, Phillips's anti-hero, and his romantic plight emerges. First published in 1973, A Humument - as Phillips titled his altered book - quickly established itself as a cult classic. Since then, the artist has been working towards a complete revision of his original, adding new pages in successive editions. That process is now finished. This 50th anniversary edition presents, for the first time, an entirely new and complete version of A Humument.
>> It is worth visiting the website.
Sometimes other languages have ways of saying things that come a lot closer to the actual experience of the thing than the language you normally speak is capable of. Luckily, Ella Frances Saunders has collected (and illustrated!) an excellent selection of these.
German is full of wonderful compound words, so it is the obvious language with which to construct new terms for situations that have been crying out for nomenclature (but probably crying rather quietly, as the need for the word is only made evident by its provision (which point is interesting in itself)). Witzbeharrsamkeit - Unashamedly repeating a bon mot until it is properly heard by everyone present. Scheidungskreidekreisprobe - The distribution of friends after a divorce. Frohsinnsfaschismus - The god-awful mediocrity of organised fun.
For over 70 years, Clowns International - the oldest established clowning organization - has been painting the faces of its members on eggs. Each one is a record of a clown's unique identity, preserving the unwritten rule that no clown should copy another's look. At first they were painted on real eggshells, then later (when they kept breaking) on to ceramic eggs, most of which are now housed at the Wookey Hole Clowns' Museum. Here images from this extraordinary archive are accompanied by the stories of the men and women behind the make-up.
Fifty-two images of everyday and unexpected objects provide the perfect canvases for creating funny, quirky and completely original faces. Just add eyes, noses, mouths, ears, hair and more from 6 vinyl sticker sheets packed with expressive features and other amusing accessories. Exemplary fun.
Russian Criminal Tattoo: Postcards by Sergei Vasiliev and Danzig Baldaev $40
An ethnographic portrait of a closed society with its own symbolic language and rituals. The 25 drawings and 25 photographs here have been chosen from the thousands copied from convicts’ skins by prison attendant Danzig Baldaev and photographer Sergei Vasiliev, and give an insight into the aesthetic, political, sexual, ‘tribal’ and spiritual concerns and traditions of Russian criminal culture.
Who better as a guide to the manly life than the man who was every man? These newspaper columns have only recently been identified as being Whitman's work.
Brush up on your breeds and have fun at the same time.
Once you start looking at the subjects' hair in artworks, you'll find amusement everywhere. This wee handbook from the collections of the Christchurch Art Gallery will get you started.
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