If you are passionate about Munch's art, you'll enjoy this immensely. If you deal professionally in fine prints, this will be a substantial addition to your working library. For all others, it's too much and not enough.
This remarkable book is a complete catalog of prints from a very prolific printmaker - over 700 of them, from a career spanning 50 years. Each one is reproduced, B&W or color, in readily recognizable form. When significantly different states or inkings are known, each variation is shown. Thorough notes accompany each, not just medium, size, and date, but information about where it was printed and displayed, and sometimes even about the plate, block, or stone from which it was printed. Indexing, notes, and supporting material are meticulous. This volume certainly meets its goal: to represent Munch's total output of prints, to the extent that very fine scholarship possibly can.
This is just a catalog, though. The author has intentionally witheld commentary, referring readers to the large literature that already analyzes Munch's work. Reproductions are always printed well, and large enough to be easily recognized. Very few are full sized or even page sized - despite its large format, this isn't a coffee table book of the usual kind. Anyone but a serious fan will find it repetitive and disappointing as a "picture book."
//wiredweird
