DOP

I’ve recently come across some images on various Instagram accounts that immediately caught my eye. They all mention the title of the original book but not the illustrator’s name. It took me some time to trace the images back to one Tumblr where they all have seemed to appear first. I’ve contacted the person who runs the page and indeed I found the source. Paul Farrelly picked up the book from a New Age bookstore in Beijing. It was a second-hand copy, originally from Taiwan.

And although he couldn’t tell me anything about the artist with the curious signature of R. Kondo, he was so kind as to shed some light on the mysterious find. The book also contains text and is mainly concerned with the afterlife. It also includes introductions to various scientists and people like Swedenborg. All in Chinese.

Although I’m dying to know more about the artist, the remaining mystery does fit the subject matter very well, and I came to appreciate how it inspires the imagination. Note: The selection below doesn’t follow the chronological order of the book.

靈異世界 [導引您做一趟神秘奇幻世界之旅]
The Mystical World (Leading you on travels in a mysterious and visionary world).
Published 1990 by Jiangmen Cultural Relics, Taipei (Taiwan)
台北：將門文物出版有限公司

Thanks to Altered Statuses, a large archive of the visual culture of global New Ages, esotericism and fringe religions.