Week 2: Form & Perception

“And what is the use…of a book without pictures or conversations?”

At the risk of sounding trite because of its mass appeal in both scholarly research and popular culture, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is, and always will be, one of my favourite books of all time. I suspect that my first impression of Lewis Carroll’s Alice came from Disney with its fluorescent colours and memorable songs that mesmerized me as a child. It remains one of my favourites for this reason. But as I got older I realized that I really should read the book—the original text—if for no other reason than to say that I did. What captivated me from the moment I began to read it was the delicate balance and seamless relationship between text and image. Even before studying Art History I found myself compelled to images in the form of etchings, prints, drawings, cartoons and so on, in printed narratives.

The illustrated book is a form that to me represents a harmony between the imagination of the author and the vision of the artist. It offers the reader an alternative (though hopefully complementary) reading of the text. Like Darnton, I find this paratextual material to shape and colour my perceptions of a story. I am primarily drawn to the illustrations and proceed to thumb through the book until I’ve looked at each one before I even begin reading. I think of these illustrations as similar to the way using a highlighter emphasizes the takeaway points while simultaneously drawing your attention back to them. Alice is also one of the few books where I can vividly remember the act of reading, a memory I attribute to both my love of the story and my need for visualization.

Salvador Dalí, Advice From a Caterpillar, heliogravure with woodblock, 1969.

I’ve since explored numerous editions and variations of the work in search of subtle differences, and to examine the nature of a printed text in comparison to its digital counterpart. In fact, I recently discovered the 1969 edition illustrated by Salvador Dalí with 12 unique heliogravures. What a find! While I have only had the opportunity to look at these beautiful images reproduced online, I can immediately sense an entirely different experience of the story through them. So while I will always prefer a printed book rather than a digital reproduction/version, it’s not the physicality of the object that renders it interesting or curious or thrilling; it is the ways in which the text is complemented and gently moved along when it is accompanied by images.

Just to reinforce how much I enjoy this art form, I’ll end with a passage from the first issue of the Illustrated London News—a quintessentially Victorian sentiment—but one that has stuck with me every since I read it:

“Art […] has, in fact, become the bride of literature; genius has taken her as its handmaid and popularity has crowned her with laurels that only seem to grow the greener the longer they are worn.”

Another great resource that was brought to my attention, if you are an art lover like myself, is the website Artsy. The Salvador Dalí page has comprehensive information about the artist, his exhibitions, and his artworks!

References

Darnton, Robert. "'What Is the History of Books?' Revisited." Modern Intellectual History 4, no. 3 (2007): 495508.

"Our Address." Illustrated London News [London, England] 14 May 1842: [1]. Illustrated London News. Web. 21 Jan. 2016.

Various print & digital editions to explore

Carroll, Lewis, and John Tenniel. Alice's adventures in wonderland and Through the looking-glass and what Alice found there. London: MacMillan and Company, 1898. [Available at the Fisher]

Carroll, Lewis, and John Tenniel. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland; and Through the Looking-glass. Complete in One Volume. New York: Illustrated Editions Company, 1964. [Available at Robarts]

Carroll, Lewis, and John Tenniel. Alice's adventures in wonderland and Through the looking-glass and what Alice found there. London: MacMillan and Company, 1894.

https://archive.org/details/alicesadventwond00carrrich

Carroll, Lewis, and Salvador Dalí. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland. New York: Maecenas Press-Random House, 1969.

William Bennett Modern Gallery (Dalí’s Alice works)

http://www.williambennettmodern.com/artists/dali/portfolios/alice.php