cover image Double Memory: Art and Collaboration [With Signed and Numbered Lithograph]

Double Memory: Art and Collaboration [With Signed and Numbered Lithograph]

Rick Berry, Phil Hale. Donald M. Grant Publishers, $100 (128pp) ISBN 978-1-880418-04-8

Berry and Hale--best known as illustrators of books by Stephen King, Peter Straub, William Gibson and Frank Herbert--here assemble a collection of their surreal, frenetic paintings, photographs and sketches. Individually and in collaboration, the two evoke a world of obsessively proficient athletes, mysteriously tragic women, robocops, raygun-toting skinheads, monsters with human torsos and lascivious monkeys. There are echoes of Francis Bacon's horrific portraits in the distorted figure studies shown, and echoes of Max Ernst and Rene Magritte in the dark fantasies and manic, cartoonish collages. Yet ultimately Berry and Hale's dark, frightening vision is singularly their own, and their pictures are often compelling. Featuring more than 100 color plates, this album was composed on a personal desktop computer--nearly half of the images exist only on the printed page. (Mar.)