the-eyeSalvador Dalí’s masterpiece The Eye was created for the movie Spellbound, directed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1945. After forty years of having been behind closed doors, Tod set out to market the painting. He joined forces with Roanna Martin-Trigona and Richard Minsky to create a unique book that would bring the story of this surreal masterpiece back to life.

Roanna’s masterful way of combining text with images, and cinema with art, together with Richard’s idea to insert a realistic glass eye into the cover, brought new meaning to the oculus in the painting. The book also discusses, both through text and imagery, commonalities shared by Dali, Hitchcock and Freud, in connection with the gift of sight, vision, and the psychological meaning of dreams.

In addition to being a substantial support for marketing, The Eye book stands on its own as a major accomplishment in the craft of book art. Printed on Dieu Donné handmade paper, with mounted movie stills, historical photos, magazine clippings, illustrations of works of art, and other ephemera, with binding of blue calf with inset artificial eye, and title stamped in 23K gold from magnesium die of type designed in CorelDraw.

The Eye eventually was exhibited in a major show about Hollywood at The Museum of Modern Art in New York City.