Stephen King poster by Nick Tassone, 2010 (left); A Tolmer, from Mise En Page: the theory and practice of layout, UK, 1932 (right)

The Redstone Book of the Eye is a compendium of fascinating imagery that celebrates the act (and art) of seeing...

The Book of the Eye is another curatorial feat from the Redstone Press founding editor/designer, Julian Rothenstein. As with the diaries, alphabets and collections of Mexicana that have made his small press relatively famous, Rothenstein's, um, eye has been honing in on evermore enticing imagery for this latest collection.

L'Oeil magazine cover, 1955

Themed around images that trick, delight, cause surprise, or celebrate the act of ‘seeing', the Book of the Eye plunders the worlds of music, design, art, photography and science.

"In addition to people and animals; potatoes, storms, needles and robots also have eyes," writes David Shrigley in his introduction, and while the full gamut of his reference points aren't necessarily included, the book takes the reader on a tour of eye charts, street photography, pictograms and illustration.

Many of the most interesting images contain a kind of visual epiphany – that moment when the penny drops.

Cover for Match magazine by Salvador Dali, 1939

Anatoly Belsky, film poster for The Private Life of Peter Vinograd, directed by Alexander Macheret, USSR, 1934

Joan Colom, Untitled, Spain, c.1965

The Redstone Book of the Eye is published by Redstone Press/Square Peg (Random House); £20. See theredstoneshop.com, rbooks.co.uk.

CR in Print

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