El Libro de la Selva

Gabriel Pacheco offers a distinctly atmospheric reading of Kipling’s The Jungle Book in this edition from Sexto Piso. His illustrations move between reality and the surreal, giving the familiar stories a dense, breathing presence. Layers of ink, pencil, acrylic, scanned textures, and digital work create images that feel tactile and dreamlike at once.

Rediscovering the original text allowed Pacheco to build his own visual language for the book. Mowgli appears with a deliberate balance of fragility and strength, rendered in a restrained palette that sets him against the overwhelming vitality of the jungle. Animals emerge from the foliage with quiet precision, and the forest itself becomes an almost anatomical landscape full of branching forms and hidden depths.

Rather than echoing decades of iconic imagery, Pacheco opens a renewed way of entering Kipling’s world. His interpretation highlights the range of the stories and their shifting atmospheres, from the gravity of the Mowgli cycle to the tension of Rikki Tikki Tavi. This edition becomes a thoughtful dialogue between classic literature and contemporary illustration, offering an experience that feels both rooted and entirely new.