OH Cards - Development of The OH Card Genre

Development of The OH Card Genre

The OH genre grew slowly over the years, starting with the publication, in 1989, of Saga, a 55–card deck of paintings by Ely Raman illustrating scenes in possible fairy tales. Two years later American artist David Ellis produced a deck of 99 cards with abstract paintings called ecco. The Canadian naturalist and artist focused on our interaction with the natural environment with a deck of 88 cards called Habitat (1993). Ely Raman explored a different use of two–deck interactivity with a pair of decks called Persona (1994), one of portraits; the other of abstract designs that can symbolize possible social interactions or personal relationships.

For some reason, photographic images do not seem to stimulate imaginative responses. Orca, (1997), a deck about the environment inhabited by killer whales did not generate enough response to warrant a second printing despite the photos from Alexandra Morton’s collection; neither did Raccoon, (1996) a photo essay of a family of raccoons and their neighbours.

Hand–painted images fared better. Morená, (1996) a 2–deck pictorial record of the tribal life of the rain forest people painted lovingly by Brazilian artist Walde Mar de Andrade e Silva continues to charm and mystify users. A collection of Scheherazade–inspired paintings became a deck called 1001, (2003); they were painted by Canadian artist Andreé Pouliot Raman produced two more decks, a sister deck to Saga, called Mythos (2000) with a classical mythological theme, and –– in collaboration with Russian artist Marina Lukyanova –– a sister deck to Persona, called Personita, (2005), with portraits of children and ink sketches of stick–like figures in action. Lukyanova also painted the 88 picture cards for Cope (2002) a specialized deck addressing the trauma of children in war–torn areas, and used by therapists according to a detailed protocol. The deck was conceived by Ofra Ayalon, a renowned Israeli psychotherapist and Moritz Egetmeyer, the publisher of most of the decks in the genre.

Egetmeyer’s contribution to the genre is his ability to recognize the uniqueness of the thematically and artistically different decks and finding ways of marketing them successfully. Realizing that individuals would like to create their own decks, in 1998 he published Claro, a deck of cards with one surface blank and unvarnished, suitable for drawing or painting. Thus the genre is extended with unique, truly personal decks. For people who love cooking and amuse themselves by inventing unusual dishes and menus, Cuisine (1999) provides a deck with 110 illustrations of foodstuffs.