The Malling of America

When the Mall of America opened a few miles from here I made careful plans never to set foot in it. (I'm a neighborhood shopper.) Then I got a call to illustrate Ian Frazier's piece in the Atlantic. I did eventually visit MOA, and wasn't surprised that I hated the place. Big isn't better, it's just bigger. This illustration was art directed by Mary Parsons in 2002.

The End of the Book

I am writing about books these days, working on a book about books and bookstores as endangered species. About the book as something on paper you can (or used to be able to) hold in your hand. As something that doesn't require electricity, except after dark. I did this illustration a few years ago for Mary Parsons at the Atlantic. Looking at it again it could work as a depiction of the virtual library in which fonts and words are divorced from their protective covers. Once all the books are virtual they can all be burned with a flick of a switch. It makes me shudder. Booksellers and librarians are the curators of our culture. We need them.

Bookish

This might be a self portrait. I have a lot of books and when the kids were small they played havoc with them, tearing valuable pages, spilling words and letters all over the floor and refusing to clean up the mess. Two year-olds never do, do they? This drawing appeared in the Atlantic among the book reviews. The art director was the estimable Mary Parsons.