Natural history museums have long been a significant source of wonder and inspiration for me. Even though I’m a vegetarian and rather grossed out by dead things, I have a great appreciation for taxidermied animals – specifically for the purpose of preservation, education, and research. I’ve been photographing taxidermy animals at museums now for years with the intent to do somehow use these images someday. In 2019, while staying with some friends and their 1.5 year old kid, the idea to create a book seemed obvious.
Creating a children’s book full of taxidermy animals felt mildly subversive but oddly appropriate. I digitally collaged dozens of animals to give them new friends & environments. Drawing and coloring over the images with bright colors and silly shapes brings everything to life. The final touch of adding 3D googly eyes almost turns the animals into cartoons and makes the whole experience more silly and animated.
The texts are one-line poems that loosely relate to the images while making silly rhymes.
19 x 15 cm
14 pages
Wooden (3mm MDF) cover
Edition of 2
I later made a mini version of this book – without the words and just crops of each page. Since it’s an abbreviated version, it’s called “Tax Turts”, obviously.