The Book of the Erinyes

Inspiration #1: The following passage from a wonderful book by Gene Wolfe called The Shadow of the Torturer where the protagonist Severian is listening to the reminiscences of the old blind Librarian, Master Ultan.

I first read this book when I was 14, back in 1984. I’ve probably re-read it 20 times since and it remains one of my favourite books:

“I was sitting there, as I said, and had been for several watches, when I came to me that I was reading no longer. For some time I was hard put to say what I had been doing. When I tried, I could only think of certain odors and textures and colors that seemed to have no connection with anything discussed in the volume I held. At last I realized that instead of reading it, I had been observing it as a physical object. The red I recalled came from the ribbon sewn to the headband so that I might mark my place. The texture that tickled my fingers still was that of the paper in which the book was printed. The smell in my nostrils was old leather, still wearing the traces of birch oil. It was only then, when I saw the books themselves, when I began to understand their care.”

His grip on my shoulder tightened. “We have books here bound in the hides of echidnes, krakens, and beasts so long extinct that those whose studies they are, are for the most part of the opinion that no trace of them survives unfossilized. We have books bound wholly in metals of unknown alloy, and books whose bindings are covered with the thickest gems. We have books cased in perfumed woods shipped across the inconceivable gulf between creations—books doubly precious because no one on Urth can read them.”

“We have books whose papers are matted of plants from which spring curious alkaloids, so that the reader, in turning their pages, is taken unaware by bizarre fantasies and chimeric dreams. Books whose pages are not paper at all, but delicate wafers of white jade, ivory, and shell; books too who leaves are the desiccated leaves of unknown plants. Books we have also that are not books at all to the eye: scrolls and tablets and recordings on a hundred different substances. There is a cube of crystal here—though I can no longer tell you where—no larger than the ball of your thumb that contains more books than the library itself does. Though a harlot might dangle it from one ear for an ornament, there are not volumes enough in the world to counterweight the other.”

Perfect!

My friend Michael Kemp just pointed me at an interpretation of the Furies that I hadn’t seen before — Slavko Vorkapić’s excellent montage sequence for the 1934 film Crime Without Passion (written and directed by Charles MacArthur & Ben Hecht).

Slavko Vorkapić (1894–1976) was a Serbian-American film director and editor, but perhaps better known as a Special Effects Technician.

Filmreference.com has an entry for him which mentions this fantastic sequence:

When working with filmmakers of an adventurous frame of mind, Vorkapich seized the opportunity to introduce expressionist elements into his work, and some of his most imaginative effects occur in the montages he devised, working closely with cinematographer Lee Garmes, for Hecht and MacArthur’s Crime without Passion.

The opening credits show three winged Furies darting through the canyons of New York to seize at random upon their victims; when crooked lawyer Claude Rains shoots the dancer who is blackmailing him, the Furies emerge from a drop of her blood as it falls in slow-motion and wheel vengefully out into the night, feasting their eyes on the violence of the city.

I just love the way the Furies are visualised in this montage.  Spectacular!

Just for the record, the Furies were played by Dorothy Bradshaw, Fraye Gilbert, and Betty Sundmark.

The unplanned suspension of work on the Book of the Erinyes over the past couple of months (due in no small part to moving house) has proved serendipitous — I’ve been thinking a lot about the planned artwork, and each idea is now wrapped in an abundance of layers.

As well as allowing me to revise and refine the planned images, this frustrating time spent thinking-without-doing has also greatly increased the complexity of the iconography to a point where I’m now almost glad I’ve had this opportunity to delay the project.

I’ve been doing a lot more background reading — moving on from the original Greek myths of the Erinyes, and onto their appearance in popular culture (Neil Gaiman’s Sandman story arc The Kindly Ones has been a particularly refreshing treatment).

Oh, and I’m still looking for models, so if you want to play a part in this, please get in contact.

Two of the three models I had lined up for this project have had to drop out, so if you fancy being one of the 3 Furies then let me know.

The modelling will be fine art nude, but heavily shadowed and textured (see sample mock-up pics — but note: no body-paint will be involved!). The photo session should take no longer than 2 hours.

You don’t need to have had any previous modelling experience, but you should be in the south of England (I’ll pay up to £30 travelling expenses, but the modelling work itself is unpaid) — preferably in or near Brighton. You will also receive a free limited edition copy of the book when it’s finished.

So, if you’re interested in taking on the role of an avenging Greek goddess then drop me an email!

I have this mad idea — I want to make a movie trailer for my handmade limited edition artist’s book.

I’ve been wondering how to promote the Book of the Erinyes and I realised it’s going to be difficult.  It’s not just one image—it’s a whole book of images and text—so I can’t just put one big image on a web page.

My first idea (which I may still do) is a video or flash widget showing each page, with a hand turning the pages at intervals (or on the click of a button).

Once I’d got that idea I thought “why not make a trailer”.  Well, why not? So that’s just what I’m going to do.  As I progress with the Book of the Erinyes project I’m going to record clips for a movie-style trailer (as well as perhaps a “Making of…”).  And I’ll put them all up on the internet for free.

I’ve just borrowed a Samsung VPL600 Video 8 camera from my friend Sooty, and I’ve got the studio lights that I use for photography.  Now I just need someone with a very low gravelly voice for the obligatory ominous voice-over…

I’ve just dropped a message to Nina—who did some life modelling for me a year-or-so ago—to see if she’s available to model for the third of the Furies.  If so then I’ll have models for all three, and I’ll feel like this whole project is on safer ground!

Regardless of that, I’ve got this coming week planned out:

• Monday to Wednesday: finish writing text for the Book of the Erinyes
• Thursday (payday!): pay membership at Brighton Printmaking Centre and book use of the Letterpress machine
• Saturday: buy the first batch of art paper for the pages of the book
• The week after: start compositing the text at the Printmaking centre and start printing out the pages

If I can get all that done then I should have some results to post on this site very soon.

It’s looking like an increasingly busy few months ahead!  I knew this project would take some considerable time right back when I took my Letterpress printing course back in February-April.

I’ve got most of the text for the Book of the Erinyes written (you can view it here) and sometime over August/September I will be compositing the text in old lead moveable type, then printing it out.

With regards to the artwork, I’ve already done a test set of photographs with my artistic partner-in-crime Alice Kemp (who will be taking the role of Megeara) to explore the initial concepts.  Hopefully we’ll be arranging the photoshoot itself one weekend this month.

Next come the other two Furies.  Abbie has agreed to model for Tisiphone (hopefully sometime late September), but I’m still looking for a model for Alecto.  If you’re interested and you’re in the South-East of England then let me know!

The purpose of this blog is to document the progress of the Book of the Erinyes, a handbound limited edition artist’s book.

Fragments of text will provide a disjointed partial narrative to the artwork rather than being an illustrated story. The text, written in the style of a late 19^th century apocalyptic text transcribed by an opium addict, presents an incomplete narrative giving tantalising insights into the artwork.

The text will be composited and printed using old-style movable lead type on a Letterpress machine at the open access fine art print workshops run by Brighton Independent Printmakers, so it will have an unevenness that you don’t get with word-processed type, reminiscent of turn-of-the-century printing. Each page will be high quality thick artists’ paper, to give it a great tactile æsthetic.

The Book of the Erinyes draws influences from ancient myths, the growing tradition of artist’s books and altered books, graphic novels, the underground popularity of Letterpress printmaking, and authors such as Jorge Luis Borges and Gene Wolfe.