The Museum at Purgatory [Hardcover]

Nick Bantock (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 6, 1999

Through a Mixture of words and images, including photographs of invented and real objects, bogus documents, drawings, altered engravings, and short stories in catalog note form, The Museum at Purgatory is a novel depicting an imaginary and highly surreal museum of the netherworld. The museum's curator, Non, narrates the tales behind each room, and discusses Purgatory, life, and the afterlife. He also takes the reader on a guided tour of his 10 favorite rooms at the museum, each exhibiting artwork and an account of the person who sponsored it. Ending with Non's own story -- his life, his arrival at Purgatory, and his possible final destination -- this singular work will leave readers breathless with wonder and surprise.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Nick Bantock first burst onto the literary scene in 1991 with his remarkable illustrated novel Griffin & Sabine--which was as much art as it was artifice. While chronicling the correspondence between two mysterious lovers, Bantock peppered his book with visual delights--macabre post cards, intricately designed stamps, exquisite envelopes that open to disclose hand-written letters. Sabine's Notebook and The Golden Mean soon followed to complete the trilogy. In many respects, The Museum at Purgatory resembles its predecessors, mixing metaphysics and art in a way meant to both puzzle and delight its readers. The narrator offers the basic premise early on: "My name is Non, and as Curator of the Museum here at Purgatory I am required by statute to facilitate, without judgment, the progress of all collectors assigned to these halls. It is my responsibility to act as their souls' guardian, as well as preserver of their accumulated treasures." Non then goes on to give a brief overview of the layout of Purgatory, a city that "takes a meditative, non-partisan view of reality" and where visitors are "faced with fundamental questions of self-worth" that must be resolved before they can move on.

In other words, this stopping place between heaven and hell is one big analyst's couch. Non's introduction to Purgatory scans like the overly formal, academic language one finds on informational panels in natural history museums--no doubt Bantock's intention. Unfortunately, this can become wearing after a while, and it isn't until the second half of the book when Non tells his own story (as opposed to the histories of the various "collections" under his care) that the prose loosens up somewhat.

But it's the illustrations that make Bantock's books special; it's unfortunate that several of them look as if they've escaped from a Dorling Kindersley guidebook--photographs of objects on stark backgrounds with a caption explaining their significance or use. Yet this museum contains some lovely examples of its author's art. As always, his stamps and postcards are exquisite--and how many cards are postmarked Nirvana or bear stamps from Inferno? This book may not equal the mystery or sheer beauty of the Griffin & Sabine trilogy, but Nick Bantock fans will still find plenty to intrigue and amuse. --Alix Wilber

From Publishers Weekly

The author/artist of Griffin and Sabine, The Venetian's Wife and The Forgetting Room creates another lavishly illustrated fantasia, this time drawing up the fictional catalogue of a museum located in Purgatory. Envisioning that shadowy middle kingdom as a vast storehouse for the memories and artifacts of earthly existence, Bantock invents his own compelling version of the afterlife, in which the dead are required to examine objects culled from their lives and thereby decide their own fates. This scholar's dream is presided over by Curator Non, who suffers from a rare form of amnesia; until he remembers who he was in life, he must remain in Purgatory. Advising 10 other souls-in-transit on their collections, he picks up from each a hint of what the objects from his own collection might look like. The tour of these assemblages, documented both in text and images, begins with the Winter room. Alice Seline Winter, "timid as a pygmy sparrow," is represented by mangy taxidermic specimens, animal bones welded to rocks, and French tobacco cards, all part of a larger collection she compiled to console herself for her drab existence. Another room is occupied by six magical carpets purportedly belonging to a familiar figure in literary history, Edward Fitzgerald, the translator of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Other chambers feature "entomological amalgams" (fantastic insects pieced together from loose legs, wings and pincers), cryptic board games, miniature mummies and an imaginary history of spinning tops. The connections between the objects on display and the personalities and fates of their collectors are interesting, but the reader is left wishing the objects weren't quite so dark and musty. Bantock's fascination with the arcane gives the catalogue a convincing patina, but it's his exactingly detailed four-color illustrations, vivified by imaginative flourishes and fanciful devices that make his books unique among their genre. West Coast author appearances. (Nov.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 128 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins; First Edition edition (October 6, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0067575463
• ISBN-13: 978-0067575468
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 8.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,130,903 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A thought provoking premise with inspiring art is a winner., October 27, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Museum at Purgatory (Hardcover)

After much anticipation for another "Nick" book, I was rewarded with this wonderfully thought-provoking novel. The whole premise of purgatory and how one travels through it is inspired. Each character comes alive as Mr. Bantock unravels their histories one by one and allows us to view their lives and their cherished possessions. The best part of this author's books is always his art and "Museum" is no exception. The art reaches far beyond collage and moves on to assemblage in a most delicious way. Mr. Bantock's constructed shrines are wonderful. I recommend this book to all current "Nick" fans and encourage all those who love alternative art to read this new book.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A personal mythology, May 3, 2004

By 

wiredweird "wiredweird" (Earth, or somewhere nearby) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Museum at Purgatory (Byzantium Book) (Paperback)

Bantock has a wonderful style, and this book may be my favorite among the ones I've seen.

Like the Griffin and Sabine books, it has a definitely mystical side. As the name says, it's about purgatory, but not Dante's. This is a place where people have work to do, and our protagonist works as a museum keeper. That sets the scene for a series of peculiar vignettes, the kind that make just a little too much sense.

Also like G&S, there's a distinctly autobiographical sense about the story. The last section is explicitly a fictional autobiography. Somehow, though, the stories have a grounded feeling that doesn't let me believe they are pure fantasy.

As much as I like the G&S imagery, I like this better. Bantock has moved his improbable talent for assemblage and collage into 3D. He has created several series of fictional artifacts, are as complex and multifacted as his works on paper. These images, so many being photos, have a clarity that G&S sometimes lost.

This is a brief but very enjoyable book, and one worth re-reading. The pictures just get better with each reading, and the stories seem to stay fresh.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Engaging picture book for big-brained grown-ups, December 20, 2002

By 

Scott Woods (Columbus, Ohio United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Museum at Purgatory (Byzantium Book) (Paperback)

Of all of Bantock's books, this is the one that has the most accessible premise and text (though "The Venetian's Wife" is nearly just as much so and even more fun to watch unfold). His books are many things at once: a mystery, a coffee table art book, a love story, a "Where's Waldo?" for grown-ups, and this book captures most of these elements (no love story for once) with ease and is a great starting place for people who might find the concept of picking up what is essentially a grown-up's picture book less daunting.

The concept of a limbo-like place for the dead to decide/uncover their ultimate fate is engaging and the narrarator - "Non" - does a fine job of carrying us along the thread of the mystery of the place and even himself...moreso in this book than in most of the others.

It isn't bantock's best book, but it is the one you might want to recommend to someone who isn't familiar with his work and might be self-conscious about being seen with a book with pictures. The art in this book isn't quite up to par with the art in his other books, and there's a more stark presentation here (lending itself fine to the museum concept, but not as much eye candy as we're accustomed to in a Bantock book), but it's still a fine book.