The Bush House of Cards
“The Bush House of Cards” with artwork by John G. Doherty, 2004.
This pack was inspired by the Iraqi Most Wanted pack of 2003, and like the original it features a different person with some kind of connection to the Bush presidency, with a caricature and a somewhat humorous description of that person. The caricatures, described on the box as “the most influential clowns and confederates of Emperor George W’s regime” are the work of John G. Doherty in collaboration with journalist Arthur Rowse. There are 52 cards, 2 jokers, and a double-sided card showing the reverse.
See the box and jokers►
Above: The Bush House of Cards, USA, 2004.
By Peter Burnett
Member since July 27, 2022
I graduated in Russian and East European Studies from Birmingham University in 1969. It was as an undergraduate in Moscow in 1968 that I stumbled upon my first 3 packs of “unusual” playing cards which fired my curiosity and thence my life-long interest. I began researching and collecting cards in the early 1970s, since when I’ve acquired over 3,330 packs of non-standard cards, mainly from North America, UK and Western Europe, and of course from Russia and the former communist countries.
Following my retirement from the Bodleian Library in Dec. 2007 I took up a new role as Head of Library Development at the International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP) to support library development in low-income countries. This work necessitated regular training visits to many sub-Saharan African countries and also further afield, to Vietnam, Nepal and Bangladesh – all of which provided rich opportunities to further expand my playing card collection.
Since 2019 I’ve been working part-time in the Bodleian Library where I’ve been cataloguing the bequest of the late Donald Welsh, founder of the English Playing Card Society.
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