Tamara Shopsin: C'est le Pied! (THE ICE PLANT)

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.