The LE GUN art collective's beautiful magazines have been hard to find—until now. A preview of a compilation of the first three volumes.

In 2004, a small group of graduates from London's Royal College of Art founded art collective LE GUN and quietly started publishing one of the most compelling art and design magazines to come by in decades. Dedicated to celebrating the work of illustrators from around the globe, LE GUN instantly charmed audiences and critics, but its small scale and indie roots made access to it limited and coveted. Now, my friends from Mark Batty Publisher have gathered the first three issues of the magazine in LE GUN 1,2,3—an impressive, handsome tome that captures LE GUN's rich spectrum of creativity and provocative, relentlessly original artwork.

In the book's introduction, RCA professor Andrzej Klimowski, who advised the founding team, tells the project's inspired story—a tale of imagination, transformation and creative entrepreneurship:

"Many middle-aged people turn to their medicine cabinets for vitamin pills or, more drastically, turn to the knife for cosmetic surgery or the botox injection in a desperate attempt to hold onto their youth. I need only brush shoulders with the artists of LE GUN to be imbued with the elixir of life, which is so vital that it makes my hair stand on end." Andrzej Klimowski

With 400 pages and weighing in at over six pounds, the tome is, without any exaggeration, enormous.

Esoteric and beautiful, LE GUN 1,2,3 is an absolute treat of imagination, artistry, and visual eloquence from cover to heavy cover.

This post also appears on Brain Pickings.
Images: Mark Batty Publisher