As seen in Bruce Springsteen's Summer Tour Book, Madison Square Garden, Ripley's Believe it or Not, California Society Pages, and more!
As a fine artist and seasoned sign painter, it was only a matter of time, fate, and good fortune to find myself embracing the influences of the sideshow banner genre.
All the images on these pages are created and copyright protected by Amy Johnquest.
An incomplete
list of related books, some I recommend & some I'd like to Read:
A Pictorial History of The American Circus, J.& A. Durant, Diane Arbus, (untitled twins cover) Aperture Monograph; The Big Book of Freaks, Gahan Wilson, Circus of the Scars, Jan T. Gregor; Learned Pigs & Fireproof Women, Ricky Jay; In Search of the Monkey Girl, Randal Leveson & Spalding Grey; A Pictorial History of The American Carnival, J. McKennon; All About Carnivals, G. Sorrows; P.T. Barnum: America's Greatest Showman, P. Kunhardt.; Fairground Art, G. Wilson & R. Ward; Carnival Gaffs, W. Gibson; Carnival, A. Lewis; The County Fair Carnival - Where the Midway Meets the Grange, Chemung County Hist. Soc.; Curiosities Of Human Nature, S.G. Goodrich; Geek Love, K. Dunn; Freaks! Vol 1 - 5, C. Fellner; Freaks - We Who Are Not As Others, D. Mannix; Freaks, Geeks, & Strange Girls - Sideshow Banners Of The Great American Midway, R. Johnson; Freaks: Myths & Images of the Secret Self, L. Fiedler; Anomalies & Curiosities of Medicine, G. Gould & W. Pyle; "The Petrified Man," in A Curtain of Green & Other Stories, Eudora Welty; "Those Extraordinary Twins," in Pudd'nhead Wilson & Other Tales, Mark Twain; On Longing: Narratives of the Miniature, the Gigantic, the Souvenir, the Collection, Susan Stewart; Freak Shows, Robert Bogdan; Grind Show - Weirdness As Entertainment, F.O. Ray; Historical Fairground Scenes, M. Ware; Human Oddities Of The Circus & Sideshow Of Yesterday & Today -Complete List & Descriptive Text, B. Kobel; Humbug - The Art Of P.T. Barnum, N. Harris; Indian Circus, M. E. Mark; The Life Of Buffalo Bill, William F. Cody; The Little People - An Illustrated Look At Some Of The World's Most Engaging Men & Women, H. Roth & R. Cromie; The Loves & Lives Of The Hilton Sisters, Daisy & Violet Hilton; Modern Primitives, V. Vale & A. Juno.; Monster Midway - An Uninhibited Look At The Glittering World Of The Carny, William Lindsay Gresham; My Very Unusual Friends, Ward Hall; Nightmare Alley, W. L. Gresham; Special Freaks, Magicians, & Movie Stars, Living Color Productions; Step Right Up!, Dan Mannix; Very Special People - The Struggles, Loves & Triumphs Of Human Oddities, F. Drimmer; James Taylor's Shocked & Amazed! On & Off The Midway, J. Taylor; Memoirs Of A Sword Swallower, D. Mannix; The Two, The Story Of The Original Siamese Twins, A Biography, I.& A. Wallace; Freakery: Cultural spectacles of the extraordinary body, R. Garl; Step Right Up! The Adventure Of Circus In America, L. Hoh & W. Rough
This site last updated June 2005
(previouse updates: Oct. 2004 December, 1999)
Created on a Clunky Old PowerMac with PageMill 2.0