Chapters From American Illustration:

Young Reader's Books, Paperback Art, A.I. Generated Imagery

Starting in the early part of the twentieth century and continuing through the 1960s, print was still a dominant force in our culture. New York was the center of publishing houses, printing everything from classics to comic books. Writers and visual artists were in demand and print media was a primary source of employment. Their work reached generations of readers, and yet most remain unknown.

In the 1930's, the Golden Age of Print in America, Nancy Drew books were an inspiration to millions of young female readers, yet the artists and writers who worked on these books for decades are largely unknown, as are the amazing artists that created a new a new genre in American books - the science fiction paperback. Now, we're in a period where the human artist is being replaced with the first stages of A.I. generated art.

A fun, yet serious look at our connection to an art form - commercial illustration, that has been generally viewed as low art and of little value, even though most of us growing up in twentieth century America, have been deeply impacted by book illustration and magazine art. Will young people in the twenty-first century be as effected by computer-generated art?