Stephen Ellcock 4 Book Bundle
SIGNEDhardbackA collection of Stephen Ellcock’s four most recent books, signed by the author.
Underworlds
A darkly evocative compendium of images exploring natural, constructed, imaginary and subconscious underworlds, curated by renowned image collector and social media figure Stephen Ellcock. From the burrows and secret bunkers beneath our feet to imagined hellscapes and surrealist dreamscapes, the disquieting, alarming and wonderful visuals span natural and constructed subterranea and imagined and subconscious worlds. A personal introduction by Stephen together with contextual chapter introductions establish the key themes, while supplementary texts elucidate essential concepts, historical events and figures.
Thought-provoking literary, philosophical and spiritual quotations punctuate the intriguing images. Together, the images and authoritative text highlight the interplay between the real and the imagined, revealing how the real has fed our fears and hopes and informed our imagination - and conversely, how our imagination has depicted the esoteric, the abject and the unknown.
The Cosmic Dance
A visual journey from the minute to the infinite, exploring the relationships and harmonies between all parts of the universe and inspiring personal contemplation regarding our own place within it. In The Cosmic Dance, renowned image alchemist Stephen Ellcock presents a pan-global collection of remarkable, arresting and surprising images drawn from the entire history of art to explore the ancient belief that the cosmos is reflected in all living things. Organized thematically, the visual journey begins with the microscopic, the particulate and the elemental; then explores the human body as a cosmos in miniature, the beauty of divine proportions and our search for spiritual enlightenment; before finally revelling in the colossal, the celestial and the infinite.
An eloquent introduction provides an overview of the central themes and expert commentaries introduce each section. Detailed panels provide bitesize information on key concepts and key thinkers - from the four elements to Cosmic Man and from the moebius strip to the Mandelbrot set - while thought-provoking quotations from philosophers, writers, artists and scientists interspersed throughout the artworks prompt a closer, more personal engagement with the images. This stunning treasury of artworks provides the perfect guide to a deeper contemplation of the world around us, allowing readers, in the words of William Blake, to 'see a world in a grain of sand, and a heaven in a wild flower, hold infinity in the palm of your hand, and eternity in an hour'.
England on Fire
This is a book about English art like no other. Forget the tired rogues' gallery of lords and ladies, forget the tall ships and haywains. These images cut to the heart of England's psychic landscapes to portray an Albion unhinged, where magic and rebellion and destruction are the horses to which the country is hitched.
On these fabled shores we are all castaways, whether our family has lived here for four thousand years or for four. Here you will find depictions of ancient trackways, chalk carvings and standing stones, of animal-masked community rituals, of streets set ablaze in protest, of occult dreams and psychedelic prophecies. There are over 200 images by artists ranging from William Blake, J.M.W.
Turner and Samuel Palmer to Paul Nash, Louis Wain, Bill Brandt, Derek Jarman and Ithell Colquhoun to present-day visionaries such as Paula Rego, Cathy de Monchaux, George Shaw, Jamie Reid, Matt Collishaw,Tacita Dean, Lina Iris Viktor, Yinka Shonibare, Nick Waplington, Dan Hillier, Nicola Tyson, Sutapa Biswas and Chila Kumari Burman. The mind-blowing selection of images is accompanied by short texts by Mat Osman, exploring magic and mazes, ghosts and gardens, shipwrecks and cities. These poetic renderings of a spectral isle, together with Stephen Ellcock's hallucinatory visual journey, reclaim Albion as an eternally inspiring and anarchic domain - an England on fire.
The Book of Change
A brilliant awakening to our vast shared potential and creative energy for change, from the beloved social media curator Stephen Ellcock. Featuring 240 reproductions of art, photography and objects, selected from cultures through history and across the globe, as well as from living artists such as Zanele Muholi, Kara Walker, Carrie Mae Weems, Ellen Gallagher, Shirin Neshat and Gillian Wearing, this is an extraordinary collection of powerfully inspiring imagery on the nature of challenge and change. 'Perfect for our time.' Adrian Searle, Guardian'In compiling The Book of Change my aim was to combine fragments of the visual culture of the past - drawing upon as many different traditions, geographical locations and eras as possible - with work by contemporary artists and photographers and illustrators, extracting inspiration from the raw material of the world to create a unique patchwork that attempts to reimagine existence.
