Discover Dewey The 398.2's Fairy Tale Books

In this episode of "Discover Dewey" your friend and guide in all your library adventures, we'll discuss the elusive fairy-tale books, which are not always where you would expect (cue mysterious music)....

The 398.2's is the folklore section of the non-fiction collection, it includes nursery rhymes, folktales, fairy tales etc. They're not with the rest of the picture books because they depict a culture's customs, values and beliefs (in other words they think they're better than Clifford and Babar). Personally I've always found this slightly confusing since there are also some Cinderella's and Snow Whites lurking in the regular kids picture books, but then I'm not a "librarian" so I guess I shouldn't quibble. Anywho, something about the rich stories, fancy dresses and those adorable talking frogs makes for lots of great illustration which is found in many of these books. Below are two beautifully illustrated books that I found




"Snow White and the Seven Dwarves" illustrated by Chihiro Iwasaki, translated and adapted by Anthea Bell, 1984, Picture Book Studio USA.

Chihiro is a Japanese illustrator, I love her squiggly pencil line and blotchy watercolour. Her compositions and use of white areas against bolts of colour is also very effective, for example, throughout the book Snow White wears a white dress.






"The Little Mermaid" illustrated by Lisbeth Zwerger, translated and adapted by Anthea Bell, 2004,Penguin Young Readers.

I adore Lisbeth Zwerger, she's illustrated quite a few other fairy tales and children's classics like Alice in Wonderland, and her whimsical, innocent illustrations are beautiful. Her use of colour is superb and I love the tiny spot illustrations that appear sporadically throughout the text.

Art Book Review: Jenny Saville

Title: Jenny Saville
Author: Gagosian Gallery
Publisher: Rizzoli
Published: 2005
Pages: 160
Price: $31.50
Jenny Saville


I actually had Jenny’s cover painting in one of my inspiration books (goodness knows where I found it) but I wasen’t familiar with most of her work. This book is a beautifully designed and photographed exploration of her paintings. She paints skin so boldly and gesturally (which suits the dark nature of her subject matter, which includes corpses and pre-op plastic surgery patients) but still manages to give it a life like quality. I find the contrast between her cool coloured portraits (greys and blues) vs. her very warm red ones interesting. Gorgeous photography of her studio and source materials give a glimpse of her process and inspiration, and nicely round out the presentation of her work.





My favourite element of the book though, is the detail shots of her brush strokes, I always find myself peering with my nose to the paper in art books trying to see the texture of the painting. In the case of Saville’s paintings the closeup’s are really necessary to capture the motion and gesture of her work.

Book Review: Simply Packaging

Title: Simply Packaging
Author:
Publisher: victionary
Published: 2008
Pages: 240
Price: $26.37 (on amazon, I paid about $60.00 at Oscars)
Simply Packaging


Oh design books why do you have to be so darned expensive. This was a happy graduation present to myself (any excuse to buy an art book) from Oscars Art Books. While it’s a packaging book it’s also a good study of brand identity (including examples of signage and store design). I have seen quite a few of these projects online and in other books, but it’s nice to have all of them in one book, and with the other pieces that accompany them, giving a clearer picture of the brand they support.
I really love these tea bags by Maum, and it’s neat to see the various applications of the simple idea, it shows the concept has legs (well arms really-oh I kill myself). Similar is a self initiated project by designer Elisabeth Soes which is so simple and whimsical, this paper boat tea bag support is beyond cute.

Book Review: Gig Posters

Title: Gig Posters Volume 1: Rock Show Art of the 21st Century
Author: Clay Hayes
Publisher: Quirk Books
Pages: 208 pages
Price: $55.95

Gig Posters : Rock Show Art of the 21st Century by Clay Hayes of gigposters.com Includes over 700 poster images and 101 ready to frame posters. Gigposters.com is worth a post in itself, it is (as the books introduction states) "the world's largest historical archive of this art form". The website itself is vast, and at times it's not worth the effort to sift through to find the really good work hidden among the average. The book however contains only the very best.
The designers and illustrators are mostly North American with a few European artists. Each artist's work is featured in the form of one full sized poster and a few smaller thumbnails along with a brief, organized bio including info on their education, preferred mediums etc. Each full sized poster is detachable so it can be easily framed. but thankfully the perforations aren't so deep that the pages will detach by themselves over time. The work is exceptional, especially the conceptual images of artists like Jason Munn of The Small Stakes.
The book is oversized, measuring 13.9 x 10.9 x 1 inches so the posters are seen in a more true to life size, than if they were featured in an annual or your average book.

What are the 700s?

 

Why is this blog called the 700s? Because it’s my go to dewey decimal number, the art section of any library. With books on sculpture, colour, design, painting, decorative arts, textile arts, animation, and even numismatics (study/collection of currency). Art books are full of information and inspiration, I surround myself with them and find even the most inane come in handy when my creativity needs a little visual inspiration to get warmed up.

I plan to fill this blog with reviews and recommendations of art books, both ones I own, and ones I wish I did.  Content will also include, my insider information (I work at a library) about great books hidden in surprising places (like the foreign language section) as well as showcasing sites, images and other sources of inspiration.