I was unprepared for the magnitude and quality of stuff on display at LACMA's exhibition of filmmaker Guillermo del Toro's monster memorabilia collection. This just might have been the best museum exhibition I've seen.

The exhibition is called At Home With Monsters, and it contains hundreds of paintings, costumes, books, comics, props, monster magazines, statues, and other curios related to horror, science fiction, occultism, magic, and monsters, all selected from del Toro's personal collection. It's a fangirl/fanboy's dream come true. If you are into this kind of stuff, it's worth planning a trip to LA to see it. The exhibition closes on November 27.

"To find beauty in the profane. To elevate the banal. To be moved by genre. These things
are vital for my storytelling," del Toro says. "This exhibition presents a small fraction of
the things that have moved me, inspired me, and consoled me as I transit through life. It's
a devotional sampling of the enormous love that is required to create, maintain, and love
monsters in our lives."

Del Toro has a new book coming out later this month, called Guillermo del Toro: At Home with Monsters: Inside His Films, Notebooks, and Collections.

Here are some photos I took when I visited with Carla and my daughter.

del-toro01

del-toro02

del-toro03

del-toro04

del-toro05

del-toro07

del-toro09

del-toro10

del-toro11

del-toro13

del-toro14

del-toro15

del-toro16

del-toro17

del-toro18

del-toro19

del-toro20

del-toro21

del-toro22

del-toro23

del-toro24

del-toro26

del-toro27

del-toro28

del-toro29

del-toro30

del-toro31

del-toro32

del-toro35

del-toro36

del-toro37

del-toro38

del-toro39

del-toro40

del-toro44

del-toro45

del-toro46

del-toro47

del-toro48

del-toro49

del-toro52

del-toro53

del-toro54

del-toro55

del-toro57

del-toro58

del-toro59

del-toro62

del-toro64

del-toro65

del-toro66

del-toro69

del-toro70

del-toro71

del-toro72

del-toro73

del-toro74

del-toro75

del-toro76

del-toro77

del-toro78

del-toro79

del-toro80

del-toro81

del-toro83

del-toro85

del-toro86

del-toro87

del-toro88

del-toro89

del-toro90

del-toro91

del-toro92

del-toro93

del-toro94

del-toro95

del-toro97

del-toro98

del-toro99

del-toro100

del-toro101

del-toro102

del-toro104

del-toro106

del-toro107

del-toro108

del-toro109

del-toro111

del-toro112

del-toro115

del-toro116

del-toro117

del-toro122

del-toro123

del-toro124

del-toro125

del-toro126

del-toro127

del-toro128

del-toro129

del-toro131

del-toro132

del-toro133

del-toro134

del-toro135

del-toro136

del-toro137

del-toro138

del-toro140

del-toro141

del-toro142

del-toro143

del-toro144

del-toro145

del-toro147

del-toro148

del-toro149

del-toro150

del-toro151

del-toro152

del-toro154

del-toro156

del-toro157

del-toro158

del-toro159

del-toro160

del-toro161