Tamara Shopsin

C'est le Pied II is New York-based artist and illustrator Tamara Shopsin's follow up to her well-received 2007 book, C'est le Pied. Volume two is similarly filled with Shopsin's whimsical line drawings and deadpan conundrums that play on everyday mishaps. An eclectic gem, this small giftworthy paperback comprises a series of 49 elegant doodles that combine Shopsin's familiar handsome design with a New Yorker-esque--or Fischli and Weiss, or Ernie Kovacs--sense of humor, and a touch of Raymond Pettibon's edge: a broomstick-riding witch and a genie traveling by magic carpet share airspace, a battered-looking armored truck is jacked up on three sets of cinderblocks and a fully-suited knight sips soda from a straw through his helmet. Shopsin is an east coast graphic artist, line cook and the daughter of New York food legend Kenny Shopsin, whose restaurant--a long-term West Village mainstay--features a famously over-stuffed menu. Father and daughter recently collaborated on the popular cookbook, Eat Me: the Food and Philosophy of Kenny Shopsin. She is also a regular contributor to The New York Times Book Review and Op-Ed pages, as well as various other national magazines.

Handsomely designed and illustrated by Tamara Shopsin, this small paperback leads the reader through a series of visual puns and subtle wordplay in the form of 45 simple line drawings. An odd gem in the vein of certain McSweeney's publications with a bit of Raymond Pettibon thrown in, it highlights an absurdist humor that can also be found at her newest venture, Shopsin's General Store online, where one can find such eclectic staples as an Honest Abe cloisonné lapel pin featuring the emotional sixteenth President of the United States, a wooden tongue depressor silk-screened with the phrase, "I was born on a pirate ship," various darkly adorable letterpress notecards and a scarf with red and white marbling that is designed to look like a long, soft strip of bacon. A regular contributor to The New York Times Op-Ed page among other cosmopolitan publications, Shopsin is a cook and graphic artist based in New York.