Monday, October 3, 2011

Zine Review: The Fascinating History of Perfume





The old saying “you learn something new every day” may be cliché but it is true. I enjoy finding zines about subjects I never thought of investigating (Moe Bowstern’s Alaskan fishing adventures chronicled in Xtra Tuf for example).

Devan Elyse Bennett has created a slim 12 page tome on perfume. What, I thought, could be more trite and banal than perfume? Yet from ancient times onward, scents and concoctions have been intricately entwined with human development. This zine is a broad (and true to it’s title – fascinating) overture on the subject. My one complaint – the illustrations photocopied way too grainy and dark. If this was intentional for artistic sensibilities, it doesn’t work. If unintentional, reprinting the zine for clarity gets my vote. It feels like the illustrations have something important to add to the informative text, and they are lost in xerography.  More information (and a potpourri of good reading) can be found at http://ballbusterzinesinc.blogspot.com 

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the review!