Frankenstein Art Novel
Product Design & Content Creative Direction, Photoshoot Art Direction & Prop Styling, Art Collection Curation for over 60 Commissioned Fine Artworks by 12 Artists
CONCEPT
Beautifully Unsettling / The Feminine Frankenstein
The Frankenstein Art Novel introduces readers to Mary Shelley’s tale of life and death with an emphasis on nature and feminine power. Special emphasis is placed on the textural edification of the 1818 epistolary novel.
Beautifully Unsettling / The Feminine Frankenstein
The Frankenstein Art Novel introduces readers to Mary Shelley’s tale of life and death with an emphasis on nature and feminine power. Special emphasis is placed on the textural edification of the 1818 epistolary novel.
An Inside Look
Page excerpts / Product details
BOX CONCEPT
"Beneath A Blue Moon / Empathetic Creatures"
"Beneath A Blue Moon / Empathetic Creatures"
The standard Art Novel features a dust jacket showcasing custom artwork by Barbara Wildenboer.
Beneath the dust jacket is a natural linen cover.
PHOTOSHOOT CREATIVE DIRECTION | JAN 2022
PHOTOSHOOT CREATIVE DIRECTION | CONCEPT #1
Instruments of Life / Of the Earth (Before & After in Frankenstein's Lab)
Instruments of Life / Of the Earth (Before & After in Frankenstein's Lab)
Victor Frankenstein’s science and “instruments of life” are ambiguous and his processes are both experimental and immoral. Inspired by alchemy, galvanism, and empiricism, he brings to life a culmination of animal and body parts.
RESULTING IMAGERY
PHOTOSHOOT CREATIVE DIRECTION | CONCEPT #2
(Un)Reliable Narrator / Reliable Narrator / Toile Personified
(Un)Reliable Narrator / Reliable Narrator / Toile Personified
Mary Shelley and The Women of Frankenstein present us with the Art Novel. As stewards of Bond & Grace, these women confront us as a beacon for the men in the book.
Each image below personifies a vignette from the custom Women of Frankenstein Toile pattern.
The characters are brought to life through unique poses inspired by the pattern as well as silk scarf styled as tied to the unique persona of each character. The scarf features the toile pattern that decorates the endleaves of the Art Novel. This pattern was created in collaboration with Abby Olsen as part of the Frankenstein Art Novel design. Each of the characters in the toile exaggerates the characteristics of an understated female character in Frankenstein. Its presence is both our feminization of the text and an ode to Mary Shelley's long-before-her-time feminism.
RESULTING IMAGERY
PHOTOSHOOT CREATIVE DIRECTION | CONCEPT #3
Fall in Pastoral Switzerland (Clouded Daydreams)
Fall in Pastoral Switzerland (Clouded Daydreams)
Frankenstein is a romantic novel in awe of nature’s beauty and vigor. Our goal is to reorient our audience’s understanding of Frankenstein by emphasizing the natural world and picturesque scenes of solitude instead of “a green Halloween monster.” Situating the Art Novel in solitude, we hope to convey a natural tension …. where solitude can be both cleansing and sublime while also unsettling and exposed.
RESULTING IMAGERY
FRANKENSTEIN ART COLLECTION
The photos below showcase samples of the 60+ original artworks featured in the Art Novel.
Above: Portrait of the Beautifully Dead (Night) by Mekia Machine
Above: Mont Blanc by Michelle Gagliano
