Surrealist Familiars

Surrealist Familiars by Desmond Morris
Published by Dark Windows Press, 2021
A limited edition of 100 signed and numbered copies
 
This is a book about the strange objects that the artist has collected over the past 80 years. There are the natural objects – minerals, rocks, pebbles, stones, shells, fossils and twisted pieces of wood. And then there are the man-made objects, created for some practical use that has nothing to do with the world of art, but which, when their primary function has been peeled off, there emerges an aesthetic bite lying beneath the surface. Thirdly, there are objects that were made as works of art,  but in a remote or ancient culture where the rules were completely different – folk art, tribal art, prehistoric art.  Each object is discussed and illustrated as a full-page colour plate.