Review by Booklist Review
This volume brings readers into a remarkable society rife with storied monarchies, secret police, workers' revolutions, and more. Rocaterrania was the invention of Renaldo Kuhler (1931-2013), a self-taught scientific illustrator who spent most of his life developing this world in countless graphite, ink, acrylic, oil, gouache, watercolor, colored-pencil, and marker images. More than 400 are published here, accompanied by Guggenheim fellow Ingram's history of Rocaterrania, as told to him by Kuhler before he passed away. Unlike the medieval-inspired fantasies of George R. R. Martin and J. R. R. Tolkien, Kuhler's invented world exists as part of the real one, following the same calendar and incorporating historical figures like Hitler and attractions like the Moulin Rouge, in Paris, and the Bardovan Opera House, in Poughkeepsie, New York (near where Kuhler was raised). Kuhler's illustrations of Rocaterrania's language, leaders, architecture, technologies, and milestones are fiercely alive. Distinctive drawings supposedly pulled from a soldier's field journal or a design-student's sketchbook make Rocaterrania seem real. Ingram's documentation of Kuhler's richly imagined creations will fascinate all who are drawn to art and/or fantasy.--Taft, Maggie Copyright 2017 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Filmmaker Ingram returns to the subject of his 2009 documentary Rocaterrania to celebrate the whimsical imagination of self-taught artist Renaldo Kuhler (1931-2013). This lush four-color album collects over 400 of Kuhler's drawings chronicling the rich and tumultuous history of the fictional nation of Rocaterrania, a place Kuhler first dreamed up in his teens and developed throughout his life. Readers encounter the stories of key figures-such as Empress Catherine, the sultry redheaded tyrant who creates a race of neutered children to follow her, and Janet Lingart, an influential bon vivant who runs the capital city's most popular nightclub-and the nation's defining events, such as the civil war of 1950 and the Great Workers' Revolt in 1951. Kuhler outlined his world in painstaking detail, envisioning such details as gas lighting fixtures, an intricate metro signal system, the signatures of attendees at a military convention, and stills from popular films. The book includes his extensive notes on the nation's official language, Rocaterranski, complete with its own alphabet and idioms. Ingram's keen appreciation of the artist and his work is apparent in every aspect of this book. It's truly a wonder to behold. Color illus. (Oct.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
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