Man, I flipped my wig when I saw the first Astraleyez post about Spell Bound (2023). The book debuted at the Lethal Matters book fair in LA and I pretty much begged my pal Michael Hsuing, who was also vending there, to snag me a copy. Thank goodness he did, because the 333-copy first edition sold out pretty much immediately — many folks I recommended the book to in that first week were left wanting (there is a second edition out now and, while the cover is also cool, I think the cover here, shot by Emily Utne (somehow in 2023, not 1974?) is the definitive one.

Anyway, the book is a set of photographs of the cover of paperbacks from the collection of Mr. Eyez. As you might have guessed, they are unified by their interest in the occult, but they range from books about witchcraft to books that are extremely nervous about witchcraft but also turned on by witches and straight up horror novels both terrified of and supportive of witches. All of them are pleasingly worn in, which foxed edges, crinkled spines and smudges on the cover. The overall effect is not just a celebration of these often lurid books, but also the assembly of them as a the wares of some sort of perfect or archetypal occult/vintage book shop I can visit in my mind. It’s one of very few books I’ve encountered that conjures the memory of a smell.

Well worth trying to snag a copy if this sort of thing is your jam. I hope Mr. Eyez produces many, many more volumes!