In “Peter and Jane, the Lost Episodes”, [Jon Bentley] succeeds in recontextualising commonplace scenes with unexpected and absurdly humorous interventions.
Jon recalls his first encounter with the iconic Peter and Jane books: “Like many people of my generation, I learned to read with Peter, Jane, Mummy, Daddy and Pat the dog. As I struggled with the unfamiliar letters, my eyes where invariably drawn to the picture on the opposite page, full of strange details that drew me in and seemed to suggest a richer more mysterious narrative than the prosaic stories and dialogue on the written page”.
Years later, Jon revisited those images and began to construct a series of alternative and surreal narratives.
Artist Jon Bentley, inspired by Peter and Jane from the Key Words Reading Scheme early readers children’s books. And presumably Nietzsche. Or Cthulhu. Either way, it’s worth checking out the many other examples of Jon Bentley’s fine work.
Thanks for posting – Jon Bently’s work makes me both nostalgic about my ladybird books of years past and disturbed.
Yes, this was one of my favorite posts of the last few weeks at least. I suddenly want to buy copies to inflict them on the children of all of my friends.
I did have a look, shame there doesn’t appear to be prints or a book – just expensive art. Generous photo’s though.