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Wunderkammer  , ,   ,   

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Wunderkammer  , ,   ,    Introducing a forthcoming book from Heavenly Monkey Editions The WunderCabinet The Curious Worlds of Barbara Hodgson & Claudia Cohen A wunderkammer , , , . T h e Wu n d e r C a b i n e t C o n t e n t s e f e A a b b f a f a b h d c g k c d c g i h g j k e d e A , Barbara Hodgson and Claudia Introduction: Our Curious Worlds Combine Cohen have delved into the past to examine humankind’s passion for accumulation. They discovered a lineage that, in its modern form, stretches from the Renaissance to Naturalia the Enlightenment. It includes aristocrats, scientists, philosophers and artists who created Evolution: A Palæo Field Book fascinating cabinets of curiosities, or Wunderkammern, to display their collections of Metamorphosis: Life Cycles Observed natural history, scientific apparatus, artifacts and art. Conchology: A Mania for Sea Life Botanizing: The Herbarium The WunderCabinet is a singular interpretation of these th-to-th-century cabinets of Crystals: Order & Chaos curiosities through essays, images and objects, presented together in an imaginative and Ornithology: The Bird as a Natural Miracle elegant package. Artificialia By means of the two essential wunderkammer categories, Naturalia and Artificialia, Mazes & Labyrinths: Unravelling the Tower of Babel Hodgson and Cohen scrutinize the practical, the esoteric, the æsthetic and the bizarre. Solid Wonders: Jamnitzer Astounds In Naturalia, they divide natural history into evolution, metamorphosis, conchology, Perspective: ReViewing Nature herbaria, crystal structures and ornithology. In Artificialia (creations by artists, artisans and Mysteries: Magic Esoterica & Magic Delecto scientists), they explore labyrinths, rules of perspective, timepieces, scientific instruments, Scientifica: Examining the Near & the Far hieroglyphs and magic delights. Exotica: Wonders from Distant Lands Horologica: Instruments for Navigating Time In the best cabinet tradition, images are many and diverse and take a variety of forms, whether engraved, hand drawn, hand coloured, layered or collaged. Objects included Bibliography with the book follow this tradition and complement the topics covered in the book. [from the Introduction of The WunderCabinet] T h e Wu n d e r C a b i n e t pages, was a virtual tour of his complex and overloaded brain and featured many of his Our Curious Worlds Combine own inventions, including magic lanterns, intercom systems and automata. Authentic pre-th-century cabinets of curiosity are still to be found. Among them, we have visited and been inspired by the Francke Kunst- und Naturalienkammer in Halle, Germany, and the Kunstkammer of Rudolf II in Prague, along with the remnants of long-dispersed cabinets in museums in Bologna, Florence, London and Oxford, and T , and it is quiet, empty of visitors. You have in unique shops such as Deyrolles in Paris. entered through its only door; if there are windows, they are hidden by tall glass- In the same spirit, our cabinet is an idiosyncratic assemblage of images and objects. fronted cabinets placed along its four walls. You have some idea of what you will find Neither of us realized (until we compared collections) that, in our separate magpie in this room, for you have been invited here to visit a collection of wonders. The time is the accumulations, we had fallen prey to the desire to possess and to classify—an ever-on- present, though with very little imagination you could easily transport yourself back to the going process—and joined the venerable pursuit of organizing the known and unknown th century and the first appearance of the great Wunderkammern, cabinets of curiosity. world. Drawn as well to a universe compressed into the size of a box, we delight in the The room is too small for the quantity of objects it is said to hold, and it appears even microcosm that encourages playful juxtapositions and multi-sensory contemplation. smaller thanks to the cabinets and because of a large table in its centre. There is so much Our collecting souls are rooted firmly in the th century, when marvels were spared here to discover, but where shall you start? You could let yourself be guided, or you could the scientist’s cold, hard gaze of reason. But, as we are living in the st century, we have surrender to the objects that catch your attention. Did you notice the crocodile hanging benefitted from progress. Thus the reader will find a mix of topics and objects: old or from the ceiling? What about the map of a continent not yet discovered? Or the case new, familiar or peculiar, common or rare, but always curious. We are eclectic and illogical against the far wall crammed with primordial creatures? And the dozens of drawers to be and, lured by the seriousness of pleasure, have relinquished the possibility of finding order pulled out and examined? among a jumble of natural history specimens, language systems, visual puns, structural But the table beckons. Spread across it is a lush Persian carpet upon which an open models and all other manner of fascinating things. box has been placed. Within the box is a book surrounded by small compartments con- Our book cabinet is arranged into two sections: N, objects found in nature, taining diverse curiosities. As you study these objects, you turn to the book’s title page and A, attempts through artifice and craft to transform nature into something and realize that this is your guide. It is called The WunderCabinet, the book you are even greater. As our real and fictitious collections are personal, we have made no attempt reading this very moment. With it, the treasures of the room will be revealed. at universality, nor is this book a history of the wunderkammer. For excellent histories, we The WunderCabinet is our attempt to replicate—in spirit—the th-to-th-century recommend the titles listed in the bibliography. cabinet of curiosities. In such a cabinet, you would find shells, corals, minerals, fossils, The book is structured along the lines of a “cabinet encyclopedia,” in which image skeletons, feathers, engravings, manuscripts, ancient coins and scientific instruments. becomes object. As with all good cabinets, our images are labelled, and descriptions for In brief, anything that appeared to contribute to the understanding of life. In some each subject are found within the section introductions. cabinets—Bolognese professor Ulisse Aldrovandi’s, for example—natural history was the As well, there are objects arrayed in small compartments in the box housing this book. focus. In others—such as the collection of Milanese wood-turner Manfredo Settala— These objects range from specimens of plants, fossils, minerals, and so on, to paper con- science was emphasized. The kunstschrank (literally, art closet) of Gustavus Adolphus of structions of polyhedral solids, armillary spheres and obelisks. As no two books are alike, Sweden contained “objects of vexation,” including distorting mirrors and fragmenting we include a handwritten catalogue detailing the contents of each book. eyeglasses. That of Jesuit scholar Athanasius Kircher, who will appear frequently in these And so, welcome to our curious worlds. [Box cover, Princess Dashkov’s fingers and facsimile page from The WunderCabinet] [from “Mazes & Labyrinths,” The WunderCabinet] par ici näin por aqui deze kant ovuda this way siit kaudu tudy da questa parte D e t a i l s B C C has worked with the Gehenna, Pennyroyal, Cheloniidae and Grenfell Presses, as well as with the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum and David R. Godine. She has also created several books of paper ephemera, including Chasing Paper. B H is a book designer and author of over a dozen books, including the novels Hippolyte’s Island and The Tattooed Map. She co-curated two exhibits at the Vancouver Museum based on her non-fiction books Opium and No Place for a Lady. Cohen and Hodgson previously collaborated on The Temperamental Rose and After Image, essays and interpreta- tions of colour history, and are currently at work on a third volume in the colour series. The WunderCabinet will be published in early in an edition of signed and num- bered copies. The book (½ x ¼ inches, pp.) is designed and composed in Bembo by Barbara Hodgson. Reg Lissel spent ten months making over , foolscap sheets of paper specially for this project, which has been printed damp by Rollin Milroy at Heavenly Monkey. A copperplate etching of one of two natural history subjects by Hodgson and printed by New Leaf Editions is included. Each copy will be issued in a box decorated with a trompe l’œil pattern of wood veneer onlays. The boxes feature compartments of varying sizes, containing objects from the creators’ own collections, making each copy a unique wunderkammer in its own right. All copies will include a six-panel tunnel book of a th-century Italian curiosity cabinet, along with a booklet of kamon (stencils of Japanese family crests). The books (copies -) will be bound in leather with wood veneer onlays, matching the boxes, and gilt tooling. Copies - will be issued in a special two-drawer cabinet containing additional items. The bindings for these copies will be full leather with geometrical trompe l’oeil onlays..
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