Book of the Year

The 2006 Prospero's Books Book of the Year is Jeff Hoke's The Museum of Lost Wonder. My sole criterion for the award: it's the book this year I most love and most wish I could have written.

Erik Davis writes of the book

Jeff Hoke’s The Museum of Lost Wonder is a soulful delight—an alchemical workbook designed to remap the connections between science and poetry, matter and psyche, philosophy and comic books.

And Ode magzine says

The Search for Wonder Ends Here.

Jeff Hoke's beautifully illustrated book The Museum of Lost Wonder is about everything—from psychology to alchemy, from science to magic, from star systems to death. Hoke is an American visual artist inspired by artifacts of the 16th and 17th centuries.  He creates a super-natural ambience, reconnecting the dry, rational view of the contemporary world with the magical perspective of the ancient alchemists.  The book is a treasure trove that can be endlessly explored in search of surprising facts, strange images, thought-provoking ideas and exciting experiments.  Hoke continually manages to stimulate the imagination so that nothing is what it seems to be and everything is enchanted.  The book is an experience.

The Museum of Lost Wonder is truly a museum in a book, with seven cut-and-assemble models that bring its rich graphics into the third (and even fourth) dimension.

For a more detailed look at the book, please visit its site.

Comments

[Leslie Zemenek]

Ken, Thank you for pointing out this wonderful book. You helped me to find the perfect Xmas gift for my husband.