Poe’s Phantasia

Natalie Frank's work, often inspired by fairy tales and literature, is feminist and centers notions of power, gender, sexuality, violence, and the grotesque. In what she calls "drawings that represent a story," Frank interprets stories, literature, and fairy tales, often using the original, more brutal sources that are less familiar today. Here, Frank turned her attention to the writings of Edgar Allan Poe, specifically, his stories "Phantasia" and "The Raven." "Phantasia" is divided into three sections--Fantasies, Fantasias, and Fever Dreams--and contains prints of the black-and-white gouaches she made that reflect Victorian themes. For "The Raven," Frank created gouache-and-chalk pastel drawings that she then reproduced as prints, which focused on Lenore, the woman who inspired Poe. The fourteen tales and four poems are published in a two-volume set by the celebrated Arion Press.