From Olly Moss and the fine folks at Titan Books.

 

Buy it now:

http://titanbooks.com/silhouettes-from-popular-culture-6639/

 

For any fellow geek reading this blog, or anyone who has a geek in their lives behold this year’s perfect Christmas gift.  Buy this book and make sure your loved one opens it up in front of family then watch the hours pass by.  The book is deceptively simple.  Just look at the book description:

The best of Olly Moss’ Paper Cuts exhibition collected in a gorgeous gift book volume. Find your favourite pop-culture character in this collection of silhouettes from well-known movie, television, comics and video game characters!

This sounds like a quick book to flip through and maybe forgotten about within five minutes.  Anyone who thinks that couldn’t be any more wrong.  My wife and I have already spent hours flipping through this book, trying to identify each and every character.  Friends and family members have stopped by and upon seeing the book on the coffee table immediately loose all notion of time.  The moment any reader sees one of these amazing silhouettes the craving grows.  These portraits are the Lays potato chips of art.  Bet you cant look at just one.

The order of the book adds to the experience as well.  The relationships of the characters on the left and right sides will bring smiles of love, awe and brilliance.  How could any other artist create these perfect representations.  The creativity breaks through the dimensions of the book.  Think about it, how would you even attempt to capture the essence of Michael J Fox?  Olly Moss does it twice and both images demand to be framed.

In fact that’s one of only two complaints I have about this book.  Every one who reads Silhouettes from Popular Culture will want three copies of the title.  One to keep on the shelf, and two others to cut up and frame around the house.

The second complaint is that there is no guide or index for the characters.  I consider myself to be pretty geeky and yet there are still images I cant identify.  But then again that is part of the thrill of the book.  Upon my third read I realized who a group of three men and three women were I kicked myself for not seeing it sooner.  I was then Bayside myself in appreciation and laughter over this new favorite piece.

If I mention too many characters it will ruin your own love of this book.  The fun is in discovering who is who.  However, I will say some actors appear more than once and seeing these pictures side by side gives the reader an even deeper respect of Olly’s work.  Even representations of different icons of pop culture still showcase the essence of the actors portraying them.

This may be the perfect gift for 2012.  Perfect for any geek on your list, and even non geeks as well.  Plus its so classy any home decor would be improved by showcasing this book.