The Library of Babel [2003]

mixed media[glass, bass wood, wire & blood]

The methodical task of writing distracts me from the present state of men. The certitude that everything has been written negates us or turns us into phantoms. I know of districts in which the young men prostrate themselves mentioned suicides, more and more frequent with the years. Perhaps my old age and fearfulness deceive me, but I suspect that the human species—the unique species—is about to be extinguished, but the Library will endure: illuminated, solitary, infinite, perfectly motionless, equipped with precious volumes, useless, incorruptible, secret.

The Library of Babel—Jorge Luis Borges

Inspired by the passage above, this work utilizes the text of Jorge Luis Borges’ short-story The Library of Babel to create a vessel that is“…solitary, infinite, perfectly motionless, equipped with precious volumes, useless, incorruptible, secret.” And much like the shreds of text that surround the vial within, the small quantity of dried blood it contains represents yet another text within this library of amplifying and endless halls.