An artist book, "Eternal Elements" won 'Entrant of the Year' in 'Inspired by...' 2008 at the Victoria & Albert. The book explores various element evident in Chinese art work through the ages. Mixed media, original art work.
Walking to work one morning, I realised how quickly spring was passing me by. I started thinking about how some things in life are both fleeting and eternal. Almost at once the book leaped into my mind, almost fully formed. It has a poignant feel and engages readers in two questions: how true is the title? and how true is the representation of each word by the natural material joined to it?
There is a trend in advertising and on the internet for word clouds. They are generated from tags, keywords, categories and daily blog entries. These beautiful, intriguing clouds can be created from the most banal selection of text. I began to wonder what sort of clouds would be created from more lyrical passages. If the boring is rendered beautiful, would beautiful be rendered banal? This book holds 20 word clouds based on the sonnets 1-20 by William Shakespeare (for those who wish to cross reference, the numbers appear in Roman numerals in the clouds). The ribbon and blossom binding seemed suitably romantic and an amusing contrast to this format born in cyberspace.
The most random things happen on the night bus: fascinating overheard conversations, impromptu parties, relationship break-ups and all the while some people are just going to work, coming home or driving the bus. It can also be a tense and dangerous place to be, and some people are more vulnerable than others.
A collection of other books by Kelly Harcus
