Een aantal jaar had ik een abbonement op Artis, de oudste dierentuin van Nederland, en omdat ik dat altijd erg leuk vond was ik ook nieuwsgierig naar Ik Hou Van Artis. Het staat vol met verhalen van medewerkers en bezoekers en veel mooie foto's. Heel leuk om eens te bekijken.

~

Some years ago I used to visit Natura Artis Magistra (Artis for short) quite a lot and I always enjoyed visiting The Netherlands' oldest zoo (1837) so I was interested in this book. It's filled with nice stories from visitors and workers alike and contains also a lot of nice (old) pictures. I really enjoyed going through it.

When I heard about this book, I just knew I had to have it. It features all my favourite illustrators and more!


Now I have another confession, I got this book mostly for that, I am not sure if I would want to draw or colour in the illustrations. I know, that is what the book is for, but for me it is mostly a collection of wonderful illustrations by my favourite illustrators.

And what a beautiful collection it is, some artists really did a big thing, while a few just drew practically nothing, which I think was a shame. I know, it is probably meant to motivate people to draw, but it is a shame when you expect artist A and get only a square and a triangle and a simple message to turn these into some animal. Everyone else is doing their best to make something epic out of this book, and maybe those who just drew practically nothing also did their best, that is OK, but for me it felt like they just didn't care.

But in general the art is delightful and very detailed (especially that one with all the mice and the houses, wow, that must have taken ages to draw).

I also love that this book encourages not only colouring (as with most colouring books), but also encourages people to draw, to help out the creatures or humans in the book. Draw them hats, draw them wigs or hair, and we even have a few animals with stomach problems who could use a hand. It is all fantastically brilliant, and I truly enjoyed this book, though again, I will probably keep this as it is and not draw or colour in it. Maybe one day I will, but for now I don’t want to ruin the art with my ugly drawings. :)

All in all, this book is something I would highly recommend to all. Young and old will love this book, and as for me? I hope that we will have more books in the future with other illustrators/artists, as there are still a lot in the world that would deserve a place in a book like this!

Review first posted at http://twirlingbookprincess.com/

This is an excellent introduction to modern art that prominently features one or more types of visual illusion. A wide range of artists and techniques are show-cased. There is an introduction to each artist featuring some biographical information and discussion of the artist's motivations and techniques but really the images themselves are centre stage in this book.

If you like M.C. Escher or any of those figure-ground illusions like the two faces/single vase you have a good chance of liking a lot of the material here. The paperback is also pretty cheap for a decent full-size art book - not much more expensive than a paperback novel and less than most hardback novels.

I was previously unfamiliar with all but two of the artists presented and I would be interested in seeing more by several of them, so the "Further Reading" section will come in handy.

Delightful.

Wauw, dit was een machtig mooi boek. De verhalen van mensen/bezoekers, de foto's zijn zo mooi en het is leuk om ook zwart-wit of sepia foto's te zien. 

Ik vond de verhalen, en de geschiedenis echt prachtig om te lezen. Ik ben nu al jaren niet naar Artis gegaan, voornamelijk vanwege hoe de dieren soms in de kooien waren (klein). Het was een prachtig park, maar de dieren... Maar ik heb gehoord dat ze van alles willen veranderen, en als dat klaar is wil ik zeker weer naar Artis.

Tot die tijd heb ik dankzij dit boek weer mijn portie dierentuin Artis gehad.

Een aanrader voor iedereen die van dierentuinen houdt of van Artis alleen.