Mark Ryden's Pinxit

-By Dan dos Santos

Several years back, Taschen Books released a comprehensive monograph of Mark Ryden's work, called 'Pinxit'. Thick, oversized, and beautifully produced, this book quickly sold out. Ever since, it's been selling for about $1000 USD on the secondary market.



Just this month, Taschen released a reprint of this book.



This book is HUGE! It is 11 x 15 inches, canvas and gold embossed cover, over 350 pages of art, and lots of double-page spreads and gatefolds throughout. Seriously, art books don't get much nicer than this! Aside from not having a slipcase, it is nearly identical to the original, and a total steal at the new price of $42.



The book is already enormous, but the design makes it feel even bigger than it is. Often times there are small details of a painting blown up into 20 inch wide spreads, with great clarity.

The work inside is basically a complete retrospective, right up to, and including, Ryden's last show 'The Gay 90's'. There are a lot of preliminaries included, and several of the paintings are photographed within their frames (Which if you've ever seen a Ryden show in person, you'll know is integral to the pieces).



I have a feeling this book is going to sell out again rather quickly, so I snagged mine immediately. If you're a fan of Mark Ryden's work, I suggest you do the same. Trust me, you will NOT be disappointed.

There are a lot of sellers that carry it on Amazon. I bought mine from Book Rack (BooKnackrh) in South Carolina since it wasn't available directly from Amazon yet. Unfortunately, I wasn't thrilled with the packaging, as the book arrived with severely damaged corners. Admittedly, shipping a 10 pound book is difficult. However, it now appears that Amazon stocks it, which I would recommend using instead of a third party supplier.