The imaginative, often bizarre decorations that enliven fairgrounds, amusement parks and carnivals have a never-ending appeal to the popular imagination. Stunning carved and painted carousel horses, sinister mechanical targets, terrifying rides and alluring freak show banners are among the many wildly ornamented devices that use sex, horror and humour to entice fairground visitors to sample their wares. Fairground Art is the first book ever to thoroughly reveal the fascinating history of this unique art form. Featuring over 1,100 illustrations - more than 700 in extravagant colour - it has been described by the Los Angeles Herald Examiner as a magical delight and by the Financial Times as a dazzling tour-de-force of riotous colour which must now be considered the definitive work. An indispensable guide for dealers and collectors. Based on years of research, travel and photography by authors Geoff Weedon and Richard Ward, Fairground Art traces the development of amusement park imagery from th