In the Unrelenting Light at the Edge of Conscience
Chicago: Ann Tyler, 2013. Hardcover. Number 2 of 3 copies, signed and numbered by Ann Tyler, the book artist. Ann is a noted book artist and print maker whose works have been exhibited at many galleries across the United States. Her artist’s books are in the permanent collections of the Tate Gallery, London, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, and the Joan Flasch Artists Book Collection, School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She says of this book, which took her five years to complete: It was a major culmination/combining of so many parts of my work and influences. After the work I've done specific to particular events I really wanted to develop a book that would speak to overarching and recurring issues." The result is this elegantly bound elephant folio in dark blue calfskin with embossed decoration to both boards. The book, which combines elements of a sci-fi novel, sketchbook, and scientific research log takes the reader on a mysterious and puzzling journey that examines time, space, parallel universes, and the subconscious. It includes a mixture of quotations, striking imagery of newly discovered life forms, science fiction prose about another dimension, details of experiments relating to space and time, and more. According to Ann:This book "is a science fiction tale in which the violent actions of governments in our world have created new life forms in a world somewhere in deep space. The new species and their relationship to violence are discovered through space / time laboratory investigations carried out by an 'experimenter.' The narrative is structured for the viewer to also undergo a process of discovery as he/she moves through a narrative combining stream of conscious rumination, traditional description, imagery, poetry, and scientific information. The narrative and imagery move between the possible and the impossible, from the outer world to the inner world. After establishing this causal relationship between the two worlds – human actions and new life forms in the universe – the narrative then shifts and begins to allude to the possibility that this other world may not be an exterior universe but may instead be the universe of the mind. This other world is possibly a result of larger human actions upon individual memory...Edge of Conscience refers to what lies just out of reach in our memory. While unseen it still plagues us. Conscience contains the multiple meanings of the conscious mind and morality. Unrelenting Light refers to parts of our memory that are difficult to examine and when once illuminated are understood to be a relentless part of individual experience…From a metafictional perspective the author is the 'experimenter.' The artist book itself is an experiment – an attempt to understand the impact of history on the individual and society and how we absorb the history we live through." Includes 14 plates of newly discovered species, each framed with a marbled paper border and preceded with a captioned vellum tissue guard. Archivally inkjet printed on archival Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Duo paper. All edges have been handpainted with acrylic. A striking and thought provoking piece. Size: 14 x 18 inches. ARTB/081518. Fine. More