Beguiled by the Wild Book (2016 Edition)

A glorious compilation of Charley Harper’s serigraphs spanning nearly four decades of his career. Beautiful, lush color plates are accompanied by witty text in the artist’s own words. A must have for any art lover or Harper fan. Originally printed in 1994 by Flower Valley Press, re-printed in 2016, © Charley Harper.

This new edition has been updated with the serigraphs released by Charley Harper since the release of the first edition, until his death in 2007, with 110 serigraphs in total; the original essays by Roger Caras and Charley Harper remain, and his son, Brett Harper, has written a new foreword for this edition.

As Charley said about the first edition:

Were it not for my long association with Frame House Gallery, which published as limited edition serigraphs most of the designs reproduced herein, this body of work might never have been realized. The fulfillment of any lifelong endeavor is dependent upon meeting the right people at the right time; in this respect I have been fortunate indeed. To all who have encouraged and assisted me through the years, I am grateful.

When the first edition was released, not all of the works of art had actually been released as prints, although now only The Bottom Line appears to have that distinction, thanks to a new-millennium revival of interest; in the interest of spreading the powerful message describing the work, with its well-placed position as the last plate in the original edition of the book, it has been re-printed below:

Will the human race self-destruct? Life on Earth has endured five major extinction spasms, all triggered by catastrophic natural disasters. Are we the next disaster, happening even as we speak? Are we both perpetrator and victim of the Sixth Extinction, which our proliferating population is unlikely to survive because it is squeezing the trigger? Are we, like an eagle downed by an arrow guided by its own tail feather, sowing the seeds of our own destruction? Stay tuned.

The work shows the very eagle described in the blurb.