At first glance, Walton Ford’s large-scale, highly detailed animal watercolors recall the prints of 19th-century illustrators John James Audubon and Edward Lear. On closer inspection, however, a complex and unsettlingly anthropomorphic universe opens up, full of symbolism, sly humor, and references to the “operatic” quality of traditional natural history.

In this impressive yet eerie visual world, the beasts are not merely aesthetic objects but dynamic actors in allegorical struggles: a wild turkey crushes a small parrot under its claw; a troop of monkeys devastates a festively set table; a buffalo is surrounded by blood-stained white wolves. Rendered in luminous watercolor, these images captivate not only through their startling naturalism, but also through the layered stories they tell.

This updated edition of Pancha Tantra, originally published as a signed limited edition, is the most extensive overview of Ford’s work to date, featuring more than 20 new works by the artist. The volume offers dazzling detail, an in-depth analysis of his oeuvre, a complete biography, and excerpts from texts that inspired him, from Indigenous folktales to the letters of Benjamin Franklin, The Life of Benvenuto Cellini, and Audubon’s Ornithological Biography.