The Labyrinth is the latest narrative art book by renowned Swedish artist Simon Stålenhag, who previously bought us such fascinating titles like Tales From The Loop, Things From The Flood and The Electric State.

An eight-wheeled vehicle trundles across a barren landscape of ash and ruined buildings toward a lone bunker deep in the wilderness. Inside the vehicle are three passengers: two scientists―who plan to use the outpost as a home base for the study of world-ending phenomena―and a boy named Charlie.

As the work unfolds, the isolation and claustrophobia of the compound threatens each member of the expedition with madness. Forced to confront their own dark history and the struggles of the haves and have-nots, the members of the expedition find themselves hurtling toward ruin.

The retro-futuristic worlds of Simon Stålenhag’s stories, often inspired by real life pictures of the Swedish countryside are often depicted with a morbid sense of dread and decay, but Labyrinth cranks it up another notch with a narrative set in a dystopian, post-apocalyptic world. The results are eerie and haunting, evoking a strangely detached combination of awe, loneliness and nostalgia all at once.

I’ve yet to read the prose in the book and so my review is based purely on the strength of the art work, and Simon Stålenhag delivers every time. The premise is noticeably darker than his previous stories and his color palette, which is often muted to begin with is further drained of vitality in Labyrinth, and there is a fair bit of repetition with similar pieces of art work which I suspect some fans might not enjoy as much. For me however, this is still very much the skilled work of a brilliant visual storyteller and I heartily recommend.

If you are new to the artist’s books, be sure to check out his earlier works – Tales From The Loop, Things From The Flood and The Electric State.

The Labyrinth – Simon Stålenhag Art Book details :

– Dimensions – ‎ 9.9 x 1 x 11.2 inches
– Hardcover, 184 pages
– Full color, in English

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