Book Review: This Is For You

Here’s something I should have written about around Valentine’s Day, but that’s all right. Here at scrubbles, we do not strictly observe time tables. This Is For You comes from the fertile mind of the amazing British artist Rob Ryan. Here Ryan uses his paper cutting skills to tell the story of a young man seeking to fill the void in his heart. The narrative is nicely told, if a bit hackneyed, but the real star here is the intricate handiwork pictured on every page. Although the silhouetted imagery looks as if it were computer generated, they are in fact paper cutouts photographed against white backgrounds (one can even see shadows here and there). Aesthetically, the resulting works lie halfway between Victorian froufrou and the obsessive-compulsive artwork produced by the mentally challenged. I can’t imagine the man hours Ryan put into this, a slim and lovely source of inspiration.

This is for You was originally published in England back in 2007; this recent edition comes from Chronicle. Buy at Amazon.com here.