Magic Pencil: Children's Book Illustration Today (review)

The British Council's art exhibition Magic Pencil: Children's Book Illustration Todayopened in Britain at the Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne in May 2002 and is currently on tour throughout Europe. The UK's first Children's Laureate, Quentin Blake, selected the art for the exhibition, which includes his own original work and art by the following contemporary British children's book illustrators: Angela Barrett, Patrick Benson, Stephen Biesty, Raymond Briggs, John Burningham, Emma Chichester Clark, Lauren Child, Sarah Fanelli, Michael Foreman, Tony Ross, Posy Simmonds, and Charlotte Voake. The show was such a success that its organizers produced a facsimile exhibition of a selection of its illustrations that is now available in 30 countries (visit http://magicpencil.britishcouncil.org for more details). To top it all off is the British Library and British Council's joint publication of the book version of Magic Pencil, which provides a neat symmetry for the Magic Pencil'sjourney: art created for books is exhibited, and then it inspires a book created for an exhibition.

This symmetry actually ends up producing a rather tricky irony for the book Magic Pencil:its very publication places the original art back into a mass-printed book format, even as the exhibition's goal is to celebrate the rich opportunity to view the original art. Indeed, in his introduction to the book Blake writes that a central aim of this exhibition is to demonstrate that "these originalsrepay inspection in their own right, and contemplating them brings its own pleasures as well as enlarging our sense of how illustration works (emphasis mine)" (10). Beyond articulating the place and importance of this exhibition and others like it in the world of visual arts, this statement underscores the point that the book Magic Pencilis meant to accompany the exhibition. Andrea Rose of the British Council writes in her foreword to the book,

[S]eeing the originals, as opposed to the printed books, is rather like being in a room with someone as distinct from having their photograph in front of you. You become aware of subtleties and observations that go into the making of each page, and of the character that lies behind the images—the touch of John Burningham's pencil, for example, as he draws Aldo, the companion to a lonely child, or the astonishing focus of Stephen Biesty's cross-section drawings, so detailed they feel like virtual reality.

(7)

All of this is to say that the point of the exhibition Magic Pencil was to bring the original art to light for admirers and aficionados of children's book illustration. The book Magic Pencilnecessarily brings the art back to a book format in which the reader sees printed reproductions. Furthermore, in this exhibition-driven book not only is the viewer removed from the experience of seeing the art in person, she is also unable to see the art within its intended format: the children's books for which it was originally made. The book Magic Pencilis therefore best appreciated and enjoyed in concert with one's viewing of the exhibition of the original art.

This is not to say that the book Magic Pencilhas no value outside of its intended linkage with the exhibition that inspired it. For those of us who might not ever get to see the exhibition in person, the book's reproductions of art from the show can and do entertain, inspire, and delight. They were selected as the best representations of what Andrea Rose refers to in the foreword as "a second golden age of British illustration" (7). Furthermore, the collection of the illustrations in this volume provides an important documentation of the strengthening international movement afoot to value, preserve, exhibit, and honor children's book illustration. The book also includes statements from and photographs of the contributing artists, and many of the artists' statements move beyond autobiographical commentary and offer insights into the artistic process as well as into...