When my friend Molly gave me this book years ago, I couldn’t figure out if she was sending me some kind of subtle message. Did she think I had issues? No, she did not. It’s just a great book. This volume may be a catalog of one man’s fears, but what’s crazy is that it turn out to be an inventory of all of our fears. More or less anyway. Hats off to Creativity Explored, in San Francisco, for giving Michael the support to create something so unique, yet so very universal. For more info on the book, go here.

The other day The Improvised Life posted this video created by artist Sipho Mabona. There must be an innate fascination with seeing something realtively complex “literally” unfold in reverse.

The good folks over at Flavorwire put up a post today about Fulton Ryder’s tumblr collection of unusual and intriguing photographs consisting mostly of book covers, with additional images of cultural ephemera. This Robert Frank volume, whose genesis was an ad campaign in 1959 for the New York Times, brought back memories of art school photography class. Back then, The Americans, Frank’s most famous body of work, made a big impression on me. For more on Robert Frank, go here to his Artsy page.

A few days ago I got word that Simon Monk, whose work I featured here not that long ago, has put out a limited edition of archival prints of his “Secret Identity” paintings. The secret identity references the real-life names of familiar and beloved superheroes from our collective past. I’m not ashamed to admit that my highest personal admiration goes out to Peter Parker, aka Spiderman, even though for anyone who read the first post about Simon’s work, you’ll know that Speed Racer was the manboy who stole my six year old heart away. Anyhoo, I really love this series, along with Simon’s other work. It is subversive and funny, technically compelling and even a titch sad. So, even if you aren’t in a position to buy a print, please do check out his site.

Thomas Demand is one of my favorite living artists. He makes full-scale, three-dimensional paper and cardboard replicas of seemingly mundane interiors and environments culled from various press and personal photographs. He reconstructs the images, but always as a close facsimile to the original, never one that is exact. He photographs those installations and then destroys the paper sculptures. The first time I saw his work I was absolutely spellbound by both his craft and his vision. The line between invention and reality is intentional. Perfection is never his goal, and therein lies the brilliance of Thomas Demand’s work. For more information go here, here and here.