Auto da fé

Elias Canetti’s ‘Auto da Fe’. 2007. Approx 20x13x4cm. Used Book, Ink, Paint & Graphite

Altered book – Elias Canetti’s ‘Auto da Fe’  exhibited as part of the ‘Regenerator’ exhibition, Off-Centre Gallery, Bristol 2007

An idea had been swirling around for a few years; it combined work and concepts that I had touched upon in various forms within sculpture, experimental painting and books works. It brought together concerns regarding the censorship of information and ideas, mapping and journeys and that of my own healthy or unhealthy “slight” obsessions with books. The idea was to map a path through a book passing and noting in some way words of significance. I wished to arrive in no particular place and was not interested in intended image, prose of poetry.

Out of the list of books available for the regenerator project the last I researched was Canetties’ Auto da Fe. It had been banned by the Nazis during their stay of power in Germany– there would not be a better option.

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