I can’t look away from these delirious paintings of anthropomorphized books.
Over the weekend, I stumbled across the work of British artist Jonathan Wolstenholme, whose watercolors depict, among other things, anthropomorphized old books engaged in various situations, many of them literary. According to his website, his paintings “derive from a love of old books and of the paraphernalia associated with a bygone age whose hallmarks were finely skilled labor and exquisite craftsmanship in the production of all manner of objects.” Well, it definitely comes through, though it doesn’t account for the surreal sense of humor here, or the creepiness, or his skill at painting hands (I could never paint hands). These paintings aren’t new, by any means. But if you too have apparently been living under a rock, perhaps you will enjoy them, as I did—some of my favorites below.