REILLY DAVIDSON | DATE 12/5/2018

'The Moon: From Inner Worlds to Outer Space' is a Staff Pick Holiday Gift for Stargazers

The exquisitely produced exhibition catalogue The Moon: From Inner Worlds to Outer Space reads like a tell-all book on interplanetary theories, history and even conspiracies. Flip the pages and you may land on one of Leopold Galluzzo’s illustrations of winged fairy-like creatures dancing amongst unicorns and waterfalls. Flip a few pages further and land on Hito Steyerl’s 2016 project, "ExtraSpaceCraft," a postmodernist figuration of fantastical space exploration. The project combines photoshop and digital editing to produce a comical imagining of what astronauts do on the moon, from fishing to walking a goat to blowing bubbles. The point here is that the book represents more than just the scientific aspect of the moon, but also the artwork that the moon has inspired for centuries. For everyone from hipster astrological theorists to astronomical scientists, The Moon offers a fresh take on the iconography of the moon. Featured image is "Portrait of Dr. Ignacio Chávez" (1957) by Remedios Varo.