---

Artist publishes alphabet picture book featuring some of his most iconic artwork

---

Often preoccupied with death and featuring such visceral objects as a cow's head being eaten by flies, the artwork of Damien Hirst may not seem particularly child friendly. But the latest work by Britain's most successful living artist is not a gallery installation but a book designed to help children learn to read.

All images courtesy Other Criteria. © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd.

Featuring some of his best known work including The Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living (1991) - a dead shark suspended in formaldehyde - and For the Love of God (2007) - a platinum cast of a human skull encrusted with some £15,000,000 worth of diamonds, ABC by Damien Hirst follows the classic format of the alphabet book, though with some rather unusual images corresponding to the letters.

O is for orange (so far so conventional, you might think) but it is actually an orange screen print dotted with real butterflies - a classic Histian trope. The Letter J, meanwhile, is represented by the jaws of the famous shark, and D? Diamonds, of course.

Hirst, a father of three, refutes the idea that his work is too visceral for children. He told the Guardian 'My intention with The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living was to replicate the sort of fear you might feel on being confronted with a shark. It's the fear of death, but I've always noticed kids love it rather than being frightened of it.'

Is this really a book designed to help children master the alphabet? Or a rather ironic coffee table book for grown up lovers of Hirst's art? As is often the case with questions about Hirst's work, the answer is somewhat elusive.