anagapesis, 2020.

​

In January 2020 my proposal was selected to be the artist-in-residence at Bower Ashton Library. With previous works exploring asemic transcriptions of narratives that hold great personal meaning, I proposed to search through texts of which I had no prior knowledge. The unique opportunity allowed for consideration of what would happen when one explores books completely foreign to them. What would an asemic translation of a fashion magazine look like? Or perhaps a photography manual? In order to keep the emotional attachment at the heart of the work I took inspiration from Dadaist poetry, composing poems with found texts in books discovered at random. The poems soon became an anthology of autobiographical love poetry, each with its own corresponding asemic transcription which acts as a further reflection of the same sentiment. 

​

The project became a metaphor for finding love in unexpected places, and aims to inspire the concept of getting lost in the library bookshelves. In the digital age it is difficult to get lost in search engines when a definitive search is typed in, but there is nothing quite like the journey of discovery in the library; there is a need for the book in the physical space. Though digital catalogues are a great resource, they lack the serendipity of unearthing books by chance. 

​

‘anagapesis.’ is an offset lithography printed edition of five kettle-stitched, casebound books.

​

​

​

​

anagapesis

​

(n.) no longer feeling any affection for someone you once loved.