Moby-Dick in Pictures: One Drawing for Every Page

About this book

A collection of illustrations inspired by lines from every single page of the 552-page Signet Classics paperback edition of Herman Melvilles Moby-Dick Inspired by one of the worlds greatest novels Ohio artist Matt Kish set out on an epic voyage of his own one day in August 2009. More than one hundred and fifty years following the original publication of Moby-Dick Kish began illustrating Herman Melvilles classic creating images based on text selected from every page of the 552-page Signet Classics paperback edition. Completely self-taught Kish refused to set any boundaries for the artwork and employed a deliberately low-tech approach in response to the increasing popularity of born-digital art and literature. He used found pages torn from old discarded books as well as a variety of mediums including ballpoint pen marker paint crayon ink and watercolor. By layering images on top of existing words and images Kish has crafted a visual masterpiece that echoes the layers of meaning in Melvilles narrative. In retrospect Kish says he feels as foolhardy as Ishmael the novels narrator and as obsessed as Captain Ahab in his quest for the great white whale. I see now that the project was an attempt to fully understand this magnificent novel to walk through every sun-drenched word to lift up all the hatches and open all the barrels to smell taste hear and see every seabird every shark every sailor every harpooner and every whale he says. It was a hard thing a very painful thing but the novel now lives inside me in a away it never could have before. Kish spent nearly every day for eighteen months toiling away in a small closet he converted into an art studio. In order to share the work with family and friends he started the blog One Drawing for Every page of Moby-Dick where he posted art and brief description about his process on a daily basis.