Ghosts of Gone Birds: Resurrecting Lost Species through Art

This near-A4 sized paperback chronicles four art exhibitions mounted in Liverpool, London, Brighton and Swansea in 2011-13. Many talented artists contributed their work on the theme of birds which have become extinct over the past few hundred years or face extinction now. The species were selected by BirdLife International, who provided the artists’ briefs.

Narrative chapters by the author on how the exhibitions were planned and put together are followed by ample selections of illustrations of the artwork, quotes from the artists and essays on extinction by several writers. The ethos of the Gone Birds movement comes across strongly through the writings. The finality of extinction portrayed by most of the artists is offset in ‘Room 2’ by the further aim to highlight campaigns being waged at present by BirdLife International. Examples are attempting to stop hunting of migratory birds passing over Malta, and trying to change fishing practices so as to avoid extinction of albatross species.

The book gives an excellent impression of the exhibitions for someone who did not visit them. The quality of the reproduction of the artwork is excellent. One criticism is the limited usefulness of the Contents page due to the lack of page numbers in the book, and the consequent impossibility of finding the species and artists listed in the two appendices without thumbing through the whole publication.

Book reviewed by Dorian Moss