Zoophemera

Taking its inspiration from the world of animals, Zoophemera contains a wide range of designs and cast of animal figures, from wild to domestic, familiar to mythical, prey to predator, realistic to fantastic. Glimpsed in an array of attitudes including restful repose, playful frolicking, nest-bound nurturing, and social camaraderie, to aggressive stances or a heightened response to some perceived threat, the animals in these scenes convey emotion and drama for the viewer to contemplate, while indulging in ebullient colors and high-resolution compositions that attempt to make them pleasing to the eye of the beholder. The book is divided into five sections, Emblemata, Voxel Vignettes, Glass Menagerie, Woodcraft, and Neon Jungle, each a collection of related works in a similar visual style, while still remaining a part of the thematic whole. 206 illustrations, all in full color.

Mark J. P. Wolf is a Professor in the Communication Department at Concordia University Wisconsin. His books include Abstracting Reality (2000), The Medium of the Video Game (2001), Virtual Morality (2003), The Video Game Theory Reader 1 and 2 (2003, 2008), The Video Game Explosion (2007), Myst & Riven: The World of the D'ni (2011), Before the Crash: An Anthology of Early Video Game History (2012), Encyclopedia of Video Games (First Edition, 2012; Second Edition, 2021), Building Imaginary Worlds (2012), The Routledge Companion to Video Game Studies (First Edition, 2014; Second Edition, 2023), LEGO Studies (2014), Video Games Around the World (2015), Video Games and Gaming Culture (2016), Revisiting Imaginary Worlds (2017), Video Games FAQ (2017), The World of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood (2017), The Routledge Companion to Imaginary Worlds (2017), The Routledge Companion to Media Technology and Obsolescence (2018) which won the SCMS 2020 Award for Best Edited Collection, 101 Enigmatic Puzzles (2020), World-Builders on World-Building (2020), Exploring Imaginary Worlds (2020), Fifty Key Video Games (2022), and Calculated Imagery: A History of Computer Graphics and Hollywood Cinema (forthcoming). He has published articles in a wide variety of periodicals, and is the founder of the Video Game Studies Scholarly Interest Group (VGSSIG) and the Transmedia Studies Scholarly Interest Group (TSSIG) of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS). He lives in Wisconsin with his wife Diane and his sons Michael, Christian, and Francis. This is his first Art book.