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Spectrum 12: The Best In Contemporary Fantastic Art edited by Cathy Fenner and Arnie Fenner
28/11/2005 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 
pub: Underwood Books. 208 page illustrated softcover. Price: $29.95 (US). ISBN: 1-887424-94-6. Buy from Amazon US - Buy from Amazon UK
nb: US titles may only be available from Amazon US, and UK titles from Amazon UK. check out websites: www.underwoodbooks.com and www.spectrumfantasticart.com
Until a few weeks ago, if you'd asked me what Spectrum was, I'd have probably said an old primitive Sinclair home computer, the organisation Captain Scarlet belongs to or a defunct SF anthology series. Quite how I missed twelve books in an American artbook series is probably cos I'm on this side of the pond and probably poor circulation in the UK outside of the convention world. Anyway, those nice people from Underwood Books kindly sent me a copy and my jaw is still kinda dropping.
Not only is this book full of a selection of art and sculpted work from 275 people but also has a rather brilliant article breakdown of the SF/fantasy world of 2004 and how the work relates to the effects of the contemporary world by Arnie Fenner.
The art in this book is selected by competition where the judges inspect and put red beans or in exceptional cases, a paper clip in a pot against various categories. These are: advertising, book covers, comics, dimensional (various sculptured items), editorial (newspaper comment) and institutional (miscellaneous and mostly unpublished work). All of this is explained in the intro and then its page to page art from well-known and less well-known artists all chosen because it appealed to a panel. I only hope the few pictures included with this review do them justice.
Being a new observer to this book does bring out the odd raised eyebrow. For each section, you also see the runners up yet the overall winners are shown first. Maybe this is a British habit but we tend to see things the other way around here and then show the winners. I found this way around I ended up thinking there were some others that were equally good. I mean, the cover picture wasn't even a winner but on merit alone, it is still a beautiful picture.
This book also gives good coverage to all the pictures with none getting caught across two pages. It's a little weird having the credits tucked away together on one side of the page and is always a toss-up whether to look at the art or who they are credited with first. Probably playing with this arrangement has probably been regarded as a distraction but without seeing the other eleven volumes one can only base judgement on this book.
I can't see anyone buying this book for art not to be disappointed with the selection. I can also see this book on the shelves of all the publishers as a reference to who and what they've done for 2004. Your artbook shelves deserve to creak under this volume.
GF Willmetts
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