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The Blog of the LCSNA

How Did We Miss This Great Art?

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From March 27 to April 25, 2021, the Haven Gallery in Northport (Long Island, NY) had a “Lewis Carroll Group Exhibition” in which artists were “invited to look to the writings of Lewis Carroll for inspiration in all visual and thematic elements. Creative homages to the environments, characters, costumes and/or narratives will be explored and reinterpreted in the artists own style.” It’s too bad we didn’t know about it at the time, but we can visit it virtually. Many of the artworks are available for sale.

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Donald Rackin, 1933-2022

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It is with great sadness that we report the passing of a great Carrollian and a true mensch: Donald Rackin passed away on November 23, 2022, at the age of 89 in Philadelphia after a long, brave struggle with Parkinson’s. Donald was a professor of English at Temple University for 33 years, a noted scholar specializing in Victorian literature who published widely on Carroll.

 In 1967, he won the MLA’s prestigious William Riley Parker Prize for his essay “Alice’s Journey to the End of Night.” He has addressed our Society four times and served on our board from 1997 to 2002. An “In Memoriam” column will be devoted to him in the Spring 2023 Knight Letter.

Don was a warm, gentle soul with a fierce intellect always lurking behind his marvelous sense of humor. He will be greatly missed.

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Immersive “Wonderland Dreams”

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“Alexa Meade’s immersive art exhibition Wonderland Dreams is coming to NYC’s iconic 5th Avenue near Bryant Park. Every inch of the 26,000 square foot exhibit space is hand-painted from floor to ceiling in Alexa’s signature 2D/3D painting style, letting visitors step inside a multidimensional work of art. 
Wonderland Dreams brings to life the story of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland through boldly painted art installations, creating a whimsical world that plays with our perspective of art and reality. Fall down the rabbit hole into a world of secret rose gardens, mad tea parties, and a living art gallery that puts you inside the frame.”

It opens Friday, October 7 and runs through April 23, 2023. Information and tickets here.

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Haddock’s Eyes!

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Vladimir Zimakov is a talented Boston-based book artist, designer, and illustrator specializing in techniques such as linocut, silkscreen, and letterpress, among other traditional and digital media. His latest project, four years in the making, is a setting of the White Knight’s poem “Haddock’s Eyes,” as the name of the song is called. The book is “Leporello” or accordion-style, a single folded 28′ (8½ m.) sheet of paper, and is a masterpiece!

Printed from original linocuts, it is housed in a red & brown slipcase; an edition of 34 copies, signed and numbered by the artist; dimensions are 12” × 10” × 1½”; 36 pages.

​Click here for more information and photographs; an 80-minute video about its making is available here; and a .pdf Book Prospectus can be downloaded here.

The price is $1,200 plus shipping. For ordering and any additional information, please contact vzimakov@gmail.com.

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Nine Astonishing New Illustrators

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An absolute cornucopia of truly memorable illustrated editions have recently come our way, many of them discoveries of Adriana Peliano of the LCSBrazil. A few are newly published; some older ones have just come to our attention. Each entry below shows a sample page from the work. The wide range of styles once again demonstrates why Carroll’s masterworks are the most widely illustrated novels in existence. (Prices do not include postage, which in some cases, is more than the cost of the book!)

Yuri Vaschenko’s delightfully droll, pastel-infused illustrations to Wonderland (Алиса в Стране Чудес, Kniga, 1982) and Looking-Glass (Сквозь Зеркало и что там увидела Алиса, или Алиса в Зазеркалье, Kniga, 1986) have heretofore been readily available only in small formats (each book measuring 4 × 5 × 1 inch). In 2015, Vita Nova republished these works together in a deluxe, superbly printed large format (7½ × 10½ × 1½ inches) that at long last does justice to Vaschenko’s witty, hyper-surreal, and splendidly stylized art (ISBN: 978-5-93898-506-3). The perfectly reproduced illustrations were presumably shot from an extremely rare, much larger Russian edition. Given the current tragic political situation, you may wish to order it from a reliable online Finnish bookstore, Ruslania.com. €190.

Made Balbat’s painterly renditions in Alice Imedemaal, an Estonian edition (ISBN 978-9949-099-84-9), are available in signed copies from the artist. The large (9.5 x 11.5 inches) hardcover came out in 2021. It’s worthwhile to note that Alice is depicted at the right age (just turned seven), which is rare in books and almost nonexistent in movies. €36.

A stunningly unusual Italian Alice nel Paese delle Meraviglie with ballpoint pen black-and-white illustrations by Giovanni Robustelli was published in a 9 x 12-inch paperback by Edizione Papel in 2018 (ISBN 978-88-904072-3-9). His interpretations are wildly thought-provoking and the linework is exquisite. You can get it directly from the publishers. €28.

A darkly surreal, lavishly illustrated Russian duad (Приключения Алисы в Стране Чудес and Сквозь Зеркало и что там увидела Алиса, или Алиса в Зазеркалье) was published by Arbor in 2020 (ISBN 978-5-6044870-2-0), combining earlier, separate volumes. Svetlana Rumak “fuses deep, layered canvases with translucent monochrome crop prints for fantastic visual variety.” Wonderland is in rich, full color: Looking-Glass in monochrome blue. More pictures can be found on her site. It is also available from Ruslania. €100.

A somewhat more conventional, but still exciting, Italian Le avventure di Alice nel Paese delle Meraviglie (AW) illustrated by Sonia Maria Luce Possentini was released in 2017 by Corsiero (ISBN 978-88-98420-51-3). Some pages are horizontal fold-outs. Available from the publisher. €26.50.

It was particularly difficult to find a “typical” illustration here, as Alexey Fedorenko’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, published in an edition of 999 in 2011 by Verlag add-books (ISBN: 978-3000340222), utilizes a different style for almost every picture! Originally done as a Master’s thesis at the University of Applied Sciences in Manheim, Germany, its range is remarkable, from watercolors through graffiti, Japanese woodblocks, tattoos, collage, deco, Aztec, etc. Some nudes appear. In a plush hardcover and boxed, it is still available from Amazon in Germany. €39.90.

Ekaterina Kostina’s delightful and often surprising full-page paintings for Алиса в Зазеркалье (LG) were published in a large-format hardcover by Kacheli in 2021 (ISBN 978-5-907302-51-8). Her imaginative paintings often feature unusual perspectives. Again, Ruslania stocks them. €35.

Alicia en el país de las maravillas | Alicia a través del espejo (AW/LG) in a tête-bêche (upside down to each other) format contains hysterically funny portraits of the characters by Mexican illustrator Juan Gedovius. Published by Penguin Random House (ISBN: ‎978-6073186032 ) it is available from many online Mexican bookstores (www.amazon.com.mx stocks them, but will not deliver to the U.S.) MX$249 (around US$12).

Saving my favorite for last, Kirill Chelushkin’s outlandish allegorical paintings of a very modern blue-haired Alice moving among vast industrial machines and spaces is perhaps the most individualistic and creative approach to Alice since Dalí’s. The book itself is a marvel: 13 x 10.5 inches of handmade, beautifully printed splendor with a hand-designed typeface as well (ISBN 978-5-6041147-0-4). More pictures and ordering information can be found on the artist’s site. $1,500.

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The Tricycle Down the Rabbit Hole

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Fedde Benedictus’s site “The Tricycle Down the Rabbit Hole” contains musings on various topics from the perspective of a philosopher of physics. His “Numbers in Wonderland” thread has five episodes to date that are based on Alice in Wonderland and are thought-provoking, understandable, and rather droll as well. Fedde teaches at Amsterdam University College and is the managing editor of a theoretical physics journal, Foundations of Physics.

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Looking-Glass Exhibition in Brazil: Esplêndido!

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Assemblage: Adriana Peliano
Assemblage: Adriana Peliano
Photo: Alexandre Guzanshe

This month (July 5-29), the Biblioteca Pública Estadual de Minas Gerais in Belo Horizonte is presenting a splendid exhibition, the ninth such celebrating Carrollsday (July 4, of course). Brazil’s Carrollsday was created in 2010 by Beatriz (“Bia”) Mom, who is also the curator of this exhibition. This year’s iteration, which is in partnership with Adriana Peliano and the Sociedade Lewis Carroll do Brasil, celebrates Looking-Glass150.

The exhibit contains collages, assemblages, and installations. Adriana selected the books on display and designed an enormous double-chessboard whose white squares each show a different artist’s interpretation of the moment where Alice goes through the looking-glass. In all, there are 100 images from 70 illustrators from all over the globe.

If you can’t get to Belo Horizonte (it’s 280 miles due north of Rio de Janeiro) this month, there are a number of photographs you can look at on Facebook (which has close to 40); Instagram (@carrollsday); and the above link to the LCSBrazil has some as well.

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Alico en Mirlando (Esperanto)

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A new edition of La aventuroj de Alico en Mirlando (Wonderland in Esperanto) has been published by the Esperanto-Asocio de Britio. Illuminated by the fantastic Chris Riddell illustrations, the text is based on Donald Broadribb’s 1996 translation and significantly revised by Edmund Grimley Evans. You can get it from their website. Or a bookstore (ISBN: 978-0-902756-48-9).

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“Let’s Go Crazy” (Sing 2)

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Sing 2, the excellent sequel to the very popular animated musical Sing, opens with a shot of Meera, the teenage elephant (Tori Kelly), who runs through a forest, trips and falls down a hole, goes through a tiny door, and finds herself in a Wonderland musical number performed to Prince’s “Let’s Go Crazy.” Later in the film, Ash (Scarlett Johannsson) sings “Heads Will Roll,” and one of the backstage carpenters is, of course, a walrus.

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