Viktor Wynd

Master storyteller Viktor Wynd is back with a gloriously grim collection of wickedly entertaining tales from around the world, guaranteed to tickle the darker side of the imagination. Viktor Wynd has always gravitated toward the weirder corners of folklore. On his extensive travels, he has amassed a trove of stories that refuse to play nice — filled with risqué twists, grotesque details, and endings that are surprisingly happy, though not always in the way one might expect. Having entertained audiences around the world with these tales, he has now written down some of his favorites in a book as beautifully produced as it is macabre. The stories were collected in Wales, Ireland, Arabia, Germany, Norway, Papua New Guinea, and Borneo and include the adventures of a one-eyed troll; the feckless Paddy O’Dwyer; a changeling child; a girl who thinks she can outwit a witch; the doomed Sinbad the Traveler; shapeshifters; and a baby-eating pig. Each chapter begins with Wynd’s personal account of how he came to learn these stories. Arresting and intricate illustrations by Transylvanian artist Luciana Nedelea perfectly balance the charming and grotesque. The book also includes a guide to the art of learning and recounting fairy tales. With foil accents and black-stenciled edges, this volume feels like a forbidden artifact plucked from a dusty cabinet of curiosities.

Viktor Wynd's gallery and shop in East London is arranged with the sensibility of a 17th-century Wunderkabinett. It displays and sells an eccentric and seemingly random collection of objects - everything from shrunken heads to narwhal tusks, united only by the sense of wonder they inspire in their curator. Now, Wynd takes readers on a tour of homes, private collections and museums that share his fondness for things arcane, desiccated, antique, or just plain odd. The book visits rarefied locations lovingly curated to by dilettantes, bohemians and artists: from David McKinley's rambling Devon farmhouse and its historic taxidermy to an Italianate villa in East London built near tower blocks; to the House of Dreams Museum and artist Marcelle Hanselaar's studio. It also includes advice on how to start a collection of your own, covering details on auction houses, private dealers, flea markets and fairs, and shows that having distinctive taste does not necessarily require a massive budget. Designed in a style that reflects its author's delightfully idiosyncratic perspective and with illustrations by the Theatre of Dolls, and photography by Oskar Proctor, this book is dedicated to collecting the wonders of the world.