Guillermo del Toro Cabinet of Curiosities – Striking artifacts from one of the masters of fantasy and horror
Guillermo del Toro Cabinet of Curiosities: My Notebooks, Collections, and Other Obsessions
by Guillermo del Toro and Marc Scott Zicree
Harper Design
2013, 256 pages, 9.5 x 12.4 x 1.1 inches
$36 Buy a copy on Amazon
Like its title suggests, this beautiful tour of Guillermo del Toro’s creative process makes for a fascinating curio cabinet on paper. The table of contents is deceiving, with short titles like Storytelling, Cronos, and Hellboy that make it seem like the fantasy/horror director uses broad strokes to touch on these topics. But turn past the TOC and you will enter an alternate universe – del Toro’s world – that showcases all kinds of rich and striking artifacts, such as his brilliant journal pages (some in English, others in Spanish), conceptual illustrations, movie stills, and gorgeous photography of his incredible Los Angeles-based private mansion-turned-museum. Nowhere in the TOC does it mention all of the intimate essays written about him by bigwigs such as John Landis, James Cameron, Neil Gaiman, Alfonso Cuaron and Tom Cruise. Nor does it mention the personal interviews of del Toro by co-author Marc Scott Zicree that give us insight into del Toro’s life and inspiration. Both fans and newbies to the Mexican filmmaker (Cronos, Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy, Pacific Rim, The Orphanage…) will be captivated by the layers of tangible as well as intangible ingenuity that are presented here. – Carla Sinclair
July 4, 2014