True Black Tarot (Arthur Wang, 2018)

Very tactile. Very visual. The figures, almost faceless, monochromatic, suspended in air, while moving intensely at the same time. They seem to me like marble statues captured mid-flight, in a dimly lit museum, theatrically spot-lighted, half in dream, half in reality. In this way, it is easy for me to see them beyond their human forms. As idealisations and abstractions, as symbols and representations. Distilled realities of much larger things, that once captured, immediately become smaller somehow. As they are momentarily frozen here, while realities remain in motion out there, they stand still for us in our hands just ever so briefly. Enough for us to tap into the infinite, and maybe (hopefully), carry on without the cards.

(Image: Arthur Wang)

Cardstock:
Thick, with the so called "rose petal" lamination, making this friendlier to overhand or waterfall drop shuffling. Edges are hand coloured in black. Elegant.

Titles on cards:
Are mostly shadowed, printed using spot UV printing. Forcing us to focus on the images instead (I love this!). Great for readers who operate mainly intuitively, who read pictures only, for story readers, and for those who do not adhere to "meanings". 

Wrapping:
Came in an elegant all black wrapping with no sellotape (I don't know why this pleases me so much), secured with an elegant black ribbon. Very old fashioned!

Packaging:
Chic all black magnetic closure box with spot UV printing. Did I mention elegant?

Handbook:
Compact, clean, easy to read. It fits into the box (Who else spend their days hunting down books and decks which are separated from each other during storage?). Plus, most importantly for me, filled not only with texts, but includes visual markers in the form of silhouettes, taken from the main figures of each card, which mercifully provide visual anchors in the sea of words. Especially given that the titles on the cards are shadowed, these visual references became invaluable to me, and I would not want it any other way. (I am especially relieved that there was no apparent attempt at reproducing complete images in the handbook).

Verdict:
Why, of course, two thumbs up from me.