The Ultimate Alphabet

The artist Mike Wilks set out in the 1980s to depict as many words as possible in twenty-six images corresponding to the alphabet. His four-year painting odyssey resulted in a suite of magnificent compilations, all minutely detailed, masterfully rendered, and slightly surreal. Each image contains hundreds of items all starting with the same letter. It is a mind-blowing and enjoyably engaging task to attempt to identify all of the objects. One wonders at the artist accomplishing this seemingly Herculean artistic endeavor. The reader need not go crazy, however, trying to name all of the words represented in the images (at last count, 7,825!). Numbered line drawings accompanied by lists of words serve as keys to the paintings. In examining the paintings carefully, one can check one s finds against the keys and in doing so will discover new words, as well as take delight in the process of examining the art carefully. It s art appreciation and a game of discovery, all in one. The images in this book were first published in 1986 in the best-selling The Ultimate Alphabet, and later in The Annotated Ultimate Alphabet, in which keys to the images were included. Now, The Ultimate Alphabet: Complete Edition brings these two volumes together in this deluxe slipcase edition. One volume presents the paintings with introductory text by the artist; the other offers the keyed drawings and alphabetical lists of words. There has never been anything like Mike Wilks s The Ultimate Alphabet, and it s high time for it to come back into print, in this revised Complete Edition.