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Looking for Edward Gorey catalogue cover

The University of Hawaiʻi Art Gallery produced Looking for Edward Gorey, a 164-page catalogue produced as a companion to the Musings of Mystery and Alphabets of Agony: The Work of Edward Gorey exhibition that was on view at the gallery during fall 2010.

Professor Joseph Stanton, one of the principal researchers for the exhibition, authored the publication’s essay. His extensive essay brings in-depth observation and insight to Gorey’s life, works and artistic legacy.

In celebration of the release, Mānoa’s Hamilton Library is hosting a special Edward Gorey afternoon soirée at its Sunny Alcove on Sunday, October 30 at 2 p.m. The event includes a lecture by Stanton, a Gorey photo booth, Gorey inspired-activities and a book-signing by Stanton and collector and donor John A. Carollo. Read the event news release for details.

Looking for Edward Gorey chapters include:

  • Looking for Edward Gorey
  • Artist Extraordinaire
  • Dangerous Alphabets
  • Surrealistic Sleights of Mind
  • Cautionary Tales
  • Gorey Children
  • Haunted and Homicidal
  • Dance, Dramatics and Dracula
  • Curiosities: Objects and Animals
  • Naughty Thoughts and Lots of Draughts of Q.R.V.
  • Still Looking for Edward Gorey
gorey print
Illustration from The Blue Aspic by Edward Gorey

In addition to the essay, the exhibition catalogue also highlights and documents many of Gorey’s significant works in the collection and seldom seen works on special loan from the Edward Gorey Charitable Trust in New York City and the Edward Gorey House. The catalogue features rare and original pieces by Gorey including pen and ink drawings from a self-published book he created at age 12 and preliminary book cover designs and drawings.

In the chapter Dangerous Alphabets, Stanton writes: “Gorey enjoyed the notion of the alphabet book as a cliché, with considerable potential for surprise, and even shock, when alphabets of very unusual kinds are produced.”

Looking for Edward Gorey is available for $35 at the University of Hawaiʻi Art Gallery. For more information, go to the Mānoa Art Gallery’s website.

Read Mālamalama for more about the Musings of Mystery and Alphabets of Agony: The Work of Edward Gorey exhibition, Edward Gorey and the John Carollo–Edward Gorey collection.

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