Viktor Wynd's Cabinet of Wonders

About this book

Let the inimitable aesthete Viktor Wynd guide you through a subversive celebration of curiosities art mess decay and self indulgence passionately arguing that the world is full of wonder that is in danger of being sanitized and that collectors are the ultimate artists. The Viktor Wynd Museum in East London is arranged with the sensibility of a 17th-century Wunderkabinett. It displays and sells an eccentric and seemingly random collection of objectseverything from shrunken heads to narwhal tusksunited only by the sense of wonder they inspire in their curator. Now Wynd takes readers on a tour of homes private collections and museums that share his fondness for things arcane desiccated antique or just plain odd. The book visits rarified locations lovingly curated by bohemians and artists: from a rambling Devon farmhouse and its historic taxidermy to an Italianate villa in East London to the House of Dreams Museum. It also includes advice on how to start a collection of your own covering details on auction houses private dealers flea markets and fairs and shows that having distinctive taste does not necessarily require a massive budget.