Psychedelic Art Coffee Table Books

I'm not normally a coffee table book person. They're big, they're expensive, and I usually think they're boring. For some reason, I had a thought the other day; what if there were coffee table art books on psychedelic art? They exist on every other subgenre. Why not my favorite?

So I looked into it and found - while few, very few - there are a number of them. The below are the ones I found most interesting.

While I'm definitely interested in Maison Assouline's line of books - and God knows this one has a fabulous cover - I'm purposely overlooking their new Psychedelic Now book, on the grounds that it's about drugs, not art. It may sound odd, but when I talk about psychedelia being one of my favorite things, I mean and have nothing to do with drugs. It's all about the wild, colorful, swirling, surrealist, high-concept art, baby. Neon, Dayglo, black light, swirling music and incense smoke intensity - just not the drugs that inspired it all.

I'm a Pisces moon with Neptune in Scorpio. I don't need drugs to live in that headspace, I'm there naturally.

The first book has nothing to do with psychedelic art, but does have to do with the '60s and '70s, bright colors, and sparkles, spangles, and beads. The Art Of Bob Mackie has a foreword by Carol Burnett and an afterword by Cher and covers "from Marilyn Monroe’s iconic “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” gown to Carol Burnett’s “Went with the Wind” curtain-rod dress, to Cher’s show-stopping 1986 Oscar look." A must-read for me.

I do, as mentioned above, love a black light poster. I found a book full of them and at a very reasonable price - Hippy & Trippy Art: 14 Black Light Posters. These are actual posters you can hang on the wall or leave in the 11 X 14 inch book.

Pop Psychedelic is about "1960s and '70s psychedelia with '80s pop art, showcasing the enduring influence of these movements in contemporary graphic design and illustration." and that AI answer from Google is about the extent of what I can find. However, it's good enough for me. I'm at least interested.

Psychedelia 1966-1970: 101 Iconic Underground Rock Albums would be a good read in general - that genre of music is up my alley - but also, from the looks of that cover, a treasure chest of the album art.

Finally, Electrical Banana looks pretty good; it's an overview of psychedelic art in advertising of the '60s and an examination of an "international language of psychedelia." Doesn't look easy to get hold of but it is on Amazon (with some badly off-kilter photos of it).

If I manage to get my hands on any, I'll update the post.