CARNELIAN Art Works IV is a recent release of a combination of older and newer materials. If you follow CARNELIAN's work and releases, no doubt they're all images you've seen before. But the reason they're all collected together in Art Works IV is because this is the pamphlet to the fall 2009 gallery exhibitions organized by Art Jeuness, a group that promotes the arts and illustrators in Japan.

The original retail price for this 16-page (not including covers), A4 sized book is ￥1000 and in all honesty, I don't think it's worth much more than that due to the fact it's mostly re-printed art work. I was lucky enough to find it at that price, but now it's being sold for a lot more on auction sites. I knew what I would be getting at the time, so I wasn't disappointed with the content.

Of course, if you haven't been actively collecting CARNELIAN's works, then it might still be worth having it as far as having another full-color collection goes. Aside from a few of the artist's doujinshi, and an old commercial art book called Carnelian Collection Game Works, there aren't a lot of printed collections for this artist. All depends on what you like to collect ^^

This is really meant as an accompaniment to the exhibition, as not all of the illustrations are presented in their best light. For instance, there are A4 sized pages with tiny 3-inch illustration prints which really feels like a waste of space. Several of the illustrations are from commercial works like Moonlight Lady (顔のない月), and Yami to Bōshi to Hon no Tabibito (ヤミと帽子と本の旅人), along with original creations.

Some of the original illustrations have appeared in Benigyokuzui volumes as well as self-published calendars by CARNELIAN. The printing is high quality on smooth matte paper, and not the usual textured paper that CARNELIAN's doujinshi releases include.

All in all, CARNELIAN Art Works IV is a nice little collection, but not something I'd recommend buying unless you're a very dedicated Carnelian fan, or you can get it at a reasonable price. The quality is there, but the content is lacking, as it was never intended to be a stand alone book but rather a pamphlet of an exhibition.