Artist Zak Smith read Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow and did something most of us would never even comtemplate trying: drawing one illustration for each page of the epic novel.

Although Gravity’s Rainbow is a book that few people truly understand, abstract art is something many people think they know. Zak Smith’s artwork for the book wasn’t exactly abstract; in many cases they were just drawings of very tangible descriptions from the novel, but put into the totality of the book it forms one incredible abstract creation.

There have been some legal problems with Smith’s book. Apparently someone, possible from Pynchon’s group, decided that the title might be misleading. I guess that’s understandable, because it does make it seem like it is Gravity’s Rainbow accompanied by illustrations. It is not, it’s just the illustrations. The title has now been changed and made even longer, so that it’s clear the book is drawings based on the book.

Some copies of Smith’s book were released before the name change. I’m told he did at least one book signing with the original title. If you can find one of these copies for a good price, it might be a good idea to pick it up.

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