Lost: Lost and Found Pet Posters from Around the World [Paperback]

Ian Phillips (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2002

One of the first impulses of an owner who's lost a pet is to canvas the neighborhood with quickly made posters. And even if we haven't seen the wanderer in question, many of us stop to read these notices, which are often charming combinations of heartfelt pleas, humor, and handmade art.For the last decade, Ian Phillips has collected lost pet posters from around world. In Lost, Phillips selects from his vast collection those posters notable for their cleverness, humor, sorrow, entreaties, rewards, and-in several instances-sheer outlandishness ("Lost Lost Lost: one brown and white 'mottled' street duck. Does not answer to the name of Neither Norman"). For designers, artists, or anyone who wants to tap into the human and creative side of our everyday lives under stress, Lost is a book that tells a story on every page.As a collection, the posters represent an authentic folk art that expresses a commonality between the readers and the makers from the United States to China. For pet owners everywhere, and for anyone who has very stopped to read a lost pet poster, Lost is a heart-warming tribute.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"LOST LOST LOST. One brown and white `mottled' street duck. Does not answer to the name of Neither Norman." A paean to what is perhaps the most poignant form of street art, Lost: Lost and Found Pet Posters from Around the World gathers mournful pleas for the return of "Porky Pie," "Boo-Boo," "Kwai Chang" and other missing creatures wanted "vivant ou mort." One poster simply reads "Turtle. Find Him." A handful of maudlin crayon drawings by children are mixed in with striking and sometimes witty drawings and collages selected by Toronto-based illustrator Ian Phillips, who collects these posters.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review

". . . hilarious and bizarre." -- The Face, May, 2002

"A collection of lost-pet posters offers a sad, evocative and sometimes strange glimpse of the bond between humans and animals." -- salon.com, June 26, 2002

"LOST for all its apparent oddity and awkward comedy is a book that tells a story on every page." -- Blueprint, July 1, 2002

"LOST is an interesting, telling and worthwhile collection." -- January Magazine, June 20, 2002

"[LOST is] a book devoted to a poignant folk art. . . .Cute and compelling." -- Sunday Telegraph Magazine, June 23, 2002

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press; 1 edition (April 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568983379
• ISBN-13: 978-1568983370
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #769,169 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars REWARD: Have you seen this book?, May 3, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Lost: Lost and Found Pet Posters from Around the World (Paperback)

This fabulous, funny, poignant book is a compendium of lost pet posters -- homemade and heartfelt -- collected from around the world. Pets are depicted in everything from old photos (my favorite is the picture of "Pudding," a rotund and grouchy-looking cat) to children's scratchy drawings, and you will fall in love with every one of these poor misplaced animals and their ever-hopeful owners. They range from the strangely strident (witness the fellow who has produced a poster announcing he has found a Siamese cat, but will only return it if the owner can produce five forms of I.D.) to the hysterically funny (often unintentionally -- like that very same Siamese-finder). Ian Phillips has put together a charming, whimsical little book, and it would make a completely brilliant gift for any pet lover on your list.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars He's a Genius, May 16, 2005

By 

Kevin Killian (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lost: Lost and Found Pet Posters from Around the World (Paperback)

I love his work and collecting these pet posters is a stroke of genius. Anyone who's ever had a pet and who has had to write one of these posters will be blinking back tears of sympathy, even if you acknowledge the ugliness of other people's pets, for some here are real lollapoloozas. Mostly you take your hat off to the eternal virtue of hope, for some of these people have faith deeper than rivers if they believe that you'd be able to recognize their cat or dog from the miserably scanned old photo of the animal, sometimes off in a corner of a photo looking completely anonymous or so dark you can't tell what you're supposed to be looking at. The texts Phillips collects are as heartbreaking as the photos, and again for every clearcut description of an animal, there's quite a few in which it's like the old parable of the blind man and the elephant

As you pore through this book you can only hope all of these owners found their pets in this world and if not in this world, maybe in the next. LOST is a postmodern assemblage with old fashioned heart and soul, it looks good and it feels good too.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars interesting premise, December 12, 2002

By 

audrey (white mtns) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Lost: Lost and Found Pet Posters from Around the World (Paperback)

In a brief introduction, Toronto-based illustrator and designer Ian Phillips tells us he began collecting lost pet posters when he lived in Switzerland and his roommate's cat ran away. Posters are separated into Dogs, Cats, Birds and Others; the latter category includes rabbits, cows, hamsters, rats, snakes and ferrets. Posters range from those drawn by children to those displaying sophisticated wit and/or design, and represent fugitives in the US, Canada, Mexico, Australia, Europe, Japan and Africa. Each entry is on one page that shows the poster with the location identified beneath it. Facing pages make a flip drawing of pets walking across the page, and the book concludes with the author's Missing Pet Poster Tips and some factoids.

The book is more interesting in premise than selection, I thought. Some were poignant but many were not. Still, I'm glad I got this -- the picture of dour cat "Pudding" is almost worth getting the book by itself! -- and it would make a fun gift for pet lovers you know.