Michael Ezzell turns literature into picture books with surrealist illustrations

When looking at Michael Ezzell’s dazzling illustrations, all lovingly furnished inside of pre-owned books, you can sense the influence of tarot cards and surrealism all over the page. “It began in high school as an altered book project, where we took old or discarded books and added new things in,” Michael says. “It was a way of re-imagining an object that no longer served its singular purpose, turning it into a portal to another realm.” The Junior Classic is Michael’s ongoing project where he recycles neglected books and breaths new life into them with gorgeous scenes that resemble The Son Of Man by René Magritte or Lewis Caroll’s Alice In Wonderland.

“When I’m at antique stores, I now search for weird and obscure manuals, or children’s books with lots of pictures or funky text formatting,” Michael says. Drawing direct influence from Greek and Roman mythology as well as classical architecture, pre-existing drawings are transformed via collage into chalices resembling The Panopticon, or pillars that open a portal to an ocean and janus-faced men with roman curls. A fitting tribute to the escapism of children’s books, Michael’s illustrations provoke childhood reverie and daydreams where castles in the air could really exist.