(2004) Dorian Cleavenger, Fanfare, £12.99, pbk, 96pp, ISBN 0-865-62110-1
This is 'Works and Visions - vol.3" following on from The New Works and Visions of DC (2002) and features 66 new 'works' spanning 2000-2004. It is pretty much what you expect from Cleavenger, which is to say erotic grotesques, including those perrenial favourites cyborg-women, winged-women, beast-women, mer-women, demon/angel-women and bizarre-ly-costumed-women. Cover of Heavy Metal-type stuff. I guess that the problem with reviewing this is that it sort of falls under the category of "more of the same", which needn't be a bad thing, but gives the reviewer bog-all to talk about. I cannot see that Cleavenger is any better or worse than my previous encounters with his work, or that he is exploring any particularly new directions. There is little going on in this book that can be considered thematic; it contains no particularly noteworthy models, subjects or characters. There are text pieces by Cleavenger on 'balance', working with models and 'art', but they are light. Fans of Cleavenger and other Heavy Metal cover artists will probably like this stuff, but there is nothing to recommend it particularly to non-fans.
Tony Chester
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