Very few artists embraced the world’s inherent weirdness like Edward Gorey. His writings and illustrations overflow with macabre humor that make even the grisliest death scenes inexplicably funny. Although the artist shuffled his mortal coil almost fifteen years ago, that doesn’t mean his creative light has waned. Gorey might be gone, but he’s far from forgotten.
His former Cape Cod home, known as the Elephant House, stands today as a museum in his honor. In 2013, which marked the fiftieth anniversary of Gorey’s seminal work, The Gashlycrumb Tinies, the museum mounted an exhibit of original artwork that was in full swing when my husband and I visited last October. That’s where I got to shake hands with Gorey’s Doubtful Guest, as pictured above. I felt like I was meeting a celebrity, albeit in greenery form.
This year, the museum launches a collection just as compelling: F is for Fantods: The 28 Books of Edward Gorey’s Fantod Press. Using a handful of pseudonyms, including his famous pen name of Ogdred Weary, Gorey self-published more than two dozen books that no one else in the industry would touch. These works include perennial favorite, The Beastly Baby, a tale about a dreadful little tyke no one wants to claim. In traditional Gorey style, the oddball theme proves way funnier than it sounds. Likewise, this exhibit posits that while being the peculiar outsider is far from effortless, you can’t conform simply because it would be easier. Fantod Press was Gorey’s way of never giving in, and if that doesn’t make him a weird icon for the ages, then nothing does.
If a trip to the Midwest sounds more appealing than a New England excursion, you can still check out a double Gorey exhibition at Chicago’s Loyola University. Elegant Enigmas: The Art of Edward Gorey and G is for Gorey–C is for Chicago: The Collection of Thomas Michalak dovetail to give visitors a broad overview of a varied forty-five-year career. Elegant Enigmas acts as a retrospective of Gorey’s art whereas G is for Gorey centers on the man behind the morbidity. As mysterious as he was open–random fans used to stop at the Elephant House, and Gorey oftentimes invited them in, though he lived alone and never married–this is a unique opportunity to gain insight into the contradictory artist who will continue to thrill and captivate offbeat art lovers for years to come.
F is for Fantods runs through December 28th while both Elegant Enigmas and G is for Gorey close on June 15th. Catch the glorious Gorey before it’s too late.
Happy haunting!