If you are trying to track down a specific book from 1987 based purely on a missing image memory or a caption that says "picture is not shown," follow this systematic identification process:
While there is no widely known literary work or famous art book titled precisely " Picture is Not Shown
Instead of delaying the entire print run, the publisher would simply omit the images and replace them with the text This was a legal workaround: by stating the image was intentionally excluded, they avoided claims of copyright infringement (since they weren’t printing an unauthorized copy) while still fulfilling the textual contract of the book. picture is not shown book 1987
: If the book itself is supposed to have illustrations or pictures that are not shown in a related image:
This is not a printer’s error. It is a deliberate editorial decision made for specific, often secretive, reasons. If you are trying to track down a
The phrase stands as a frustrating yet fascinating artifact within the world of 1987 book publishing, academic printing, and vintage cataloging . If you have ever been reading an art history volume, a technical textbook, or a vintage auction catalog printed in 1987 only to find a blank white box or a text placeholder where a vibrant image should be, you have run directly into a distinct crossroads of late-20th-century media.
The answer lies in the economics and logistics of mass-market publishing in the mid-1980s. The Tommyknockers was a massive book—over 700 pages in its first edition. To keep costs down, some paperback reprints omitted certain visual elements. The caption “picture is not shown” was a relic of the transition from the hardcover layout, where drawings by Stephen King’s longtime illustrator, perhaps someone like Phil Parks or Linda Fennimore, had once appeared. In rushed reprints, the text remained, but the images vanished. The phrase stands as a frustrating yet fascinating
Like many innovative children's books, What's Missing? received a range of critical responses upon its release. The September 1987 Publisher’s Weekly review was generally positive, noting that “Ryan’s watercolors of the skewed scenes…make the What’s Missing? game accessible to toddlers, who will want to play it again and again”.