Daily Book Graphics

I've decided that instead of dumping the books I've blogged in our guest room, I'm going to start stacking them on top of the record shelves in the living room. Someday I'll build shelves, but that could be years from now.

The Beyond/In Western New York Catalog

Besides being in the the Burchfield Penney's section of the Beyond/In Western New York Biennial I also designed the catalog through the Albrigh-Knox publications office. I think it is one the best pieces I have designed. Below are some quick pictures of it, I will probably make some better documentation shots later on. It is 184 pages long, printed on Accent Opaque 100lbs. text.

Birds and "Birds" / NSFW Thrift Store Treasure

In all my days of thrifting for books I have never come across anything like this. I was sifting through 50 cent books at a thrift store in the suburbs and I spotted a copy of the Golden Guide to Birds, I already own the book and blogged it in DBG #158. When I picked it up I noticed something in between the Eastern Kingbird and the Great Crested Flycatcher. It turned out to be eight photographs of three different women posing in various states of undress. They appear to have been taken in the 1960s although some could be earlier. I wonder how they ended up there, did a husband hide them in a book that he thought his wife would never take off the shelf? Did he put them in a book about birds because in British slang "birds" can mean women? I suppose we will never know.

Hopefully I made this image small enough that no one will be able to recognize their grandmother.

Sorry, I have to protect the identities of these ladies.

Comparative Anatomy

Images from A Comparative View of the Human and Animal Frame by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, published in 1860. Plates can be viewed at the University of Wisconsin Library website here. Found through BibliOdyssey.

Illustrator Siggi Eggertsson

I can't remember how I found Icelandic illustrator Siggi Eggertsson's website, but I'm glad I did, he has some really great work. The image above is from a self published book of over 60 geometrical portraits of people, unfortunately he is out of stock at the moment.

The Concorde

I don't expect to find interesting books at Marshall's, so I was surprised yesterday when I found a supercool, large format book about the history of the Concorde (by Federic Beniada & Michel Fraile) for only $9.99. The photography is amazing, it documents the plane from the beginning of the design process to its recent retirement. I suppose the Concorde is a symbol of a certain kind of high tech future that didn't happen. Wolfgang Tillmans has said that his Concorde photos were about a loss of faith in the future. I'm not ready to give up on the future yet.