To wit, in “Something Else Entirely” there’s a sprawling illustration of women in black, men collapsed at their feet and peering out cautiously from their bustle skirts for Helen Vendler’s review of Notable American Women in a 1972 issue of The New York Times Book Review; an eerie greyscale garden maze and rambling topiary for a 1984 cover of TWA’s Ambassador magazine; a teensy spot illustration of a man in a trench on the case for TV Guide to accompany a regular gossip feature that first appeared in 1988; and a grinning skeleton luxuriating with a book in a striped hammock while elegantly dressed guests at a garden party look on with concern for a 1995 summer reading campaign for Bantam Books. The last drawing Gorey published in his lifetime is also on display here: an assemblage of fashionably frocked women arranged around letters spelling “black” for a 2000 issue of The New Yorker listing an exhibition at the Fashion Institute of Technology titled “The Little Black Dress and Other Signs of Status.” On paper, many of these assignments wouldn’t necessarily appeal, but brought to life by Gorey’s pen, they are utterly captivating.
But why, exactly, does Gorey continue to draw fans en masse now? In part it may be because his art and writing are a cleverly executed study in contrast. “Gorey’s work walks that perfect line between dark and funny, childlike and morbid,” says Compton. While he clearly reveled in darkness, there was always light too. “His work welcomes us into a gloomy world, but also makes this world hilarious and strangely lovable,” adds Schwartzburg.
And while some of that parallel proto-Victorian universe Gorey conjured feels old-fashioned, the work somehow doesn’t age. “It’s emotionally timeless,” says Compton. “He captured loneliness, absurdity, and curiosity in a way that still feels modern.” And, crucially, in a way that was, and is, deeply human—which in 2025 may be more valuable than ever.
“Something Else Entirely: The Illustration Art of Edward Gorey” is on view at the Society of Illustrators through January 3. “Edward Gorey: The Gloomy Gallery” is on view at Houghton Library through January 12.
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