Meanwhile #141

The first Meanwhile of the year! No, I didn’t forget I had a newsletter, you forgot I had a newsletter.

— Plagiarism, racial bias, superfluous thumbs … AI-generated art is problematic to say the least. One of the few examples that I have taken a liking to is Jonathan Hoefler’s ongoing hidden treasures series of fictional analogue devices and the short stories that accompany them.

— A bit of Dracula costumery here, a Miles Davis sleeve there, chuck in the odd Apocalypse Now poster and Björk video … Eiko Ishioka was amazing.

— Utterly splendid new edition to the internet from David Pearson: The Book Cover Review. With words from the likes of Rick Poynor, Nina Stössinger and Jamie Keenan. So far, it’s shed light on a host of covers I’ve never seen before – I particularly like Wilfrid Wood’s delve into his father’s niche natural history library.

— Fallen a little bit in love with Carl Moll’s 1902 painting Dämmerung, thanks to Mike Reed and his Instagram account wandering into Vienna’s Leopold Museum a few weeks back. Desperately need to see this IRL, although I fear I’d have to give it a touch and be sent packing.

— “The street lamps shed a faint light into the room. It was beginning to rain. Ruth listened to the rhythm of his breathing. She sat very still, her eyes closed. She heard the click of the door. He was thrown backward by the force of the explosion. Her hunting days were done.” Jez Burrows’ Dictionary Stories – short stories composed entirely of example sentences from the dictionary – is so good.

— Signed, sealed, but not always delivered: the lost art of letterlocking. Yet another fascinating post from Messy Nessy’s cabinet of chic curiosities.

— The best art and design shows to visit in 2023. Especially looking forward to the Royal Academy’s Herzog & de Meuron retrospective because mmmm models.