Picture Books: Who are they for?

Whilst searching for academic papers on Shaun Tan I actually found a paper written by the artist himself. One of these is titled Picture Books: Who are they for? Tan discusses how during his own practice very little consideration is given to this question. the artists responsibility lies with the art itself, the work will find it's own audience. This type of view is something I am trying to adopt myself as this should allow me to find my own voice through the work that I produce. Due to preconceptions picture books are still mainly regarded as children's literature. This is perhaps due to the fact that most picture books are produced for children, however this does not mean that they cannot cross boundaries and be enjoyed by a wider audience. The book The Lost Thing are discussed in great detail which lets me compare against my own findings through the case studies that have been carried out, some exerts from this paper are shown below.