Welcome all. Today, I would like to share with you a very special creation of mine (and a friend, who worked with me on the story elements) that is titled ‘Those who Remain’
‘Those who Remain’ is an artist book I made during the second semester of my penultimate year at university. “Artist books: Materiality of word and Image” was the unit title, and it followed with some profound creations throughout our class. I collaborated with a friend, Darren Tynan, on the written element for the book. While I did a lot of the work myself, the book is still a collaborative effort. The book–including all concepts, story, drawings, fitting of materials, creation and every other part–was made in less than 12 weeks.
Before I go into my intentions with this creation, I’ll examine everything I utilised while making this. My primary focus (as far as materials go) was to make a wholly natural book. I utilised Jarrah for the front and back of the book’s covers, cow leather for the binder, copper plating for re-enforcing; copper rivets for the holes in the book, archival sepia ink (pigma micron), as well as the very special goat’s skin parchment which formed my pages.
I crafted the book using skills such as printmaking, traditional drawing, woodworking, metal work, experimental book making, and a few others. My aim was to create something worthy of a museum-standard artefact.
To contextualize the decisions I made, we have to look at the historical place of interest this book derives from. I focused my ideas around the Ancient (Near) Middle East, specifically around the upper and lower extremities in-between modern-day Iraq and Iran.
Primarily, though, I was focused on the archaeological fields of Mesopotamia and Assyria. I wanted to create a book that combined many “firsts” in the world of books and the world of characters and the lands they inhabited. For example, the first great heroes in history arise out of Assyria, and the first library was also made there, evolving from the first known form of phonetic language. I will explore these forms of unity a bit later.
My main literary inspiration came from The Epic of Gilgamesh, which I read during the course of the unit and based my characters around, alongside the region of Mesopotamia. The Epic of Gilgamesh is regarded as the first great work of literature, and one of the first epic poems, or so-called “books”. As such, I thought it would be an excellent source to re-discover through my own meanings. But I took the parallels to another level of insanity, which I will explore a bit later on like the other more complex areas.
Gilgamesh became Sera, my protagonist; Enkidu, my side character, Hurapu, the goat. Here we have both man and animal alignments the story: the god-like immortal, and hero (Gilgamesh) and his sidekick, the half human, half beast (Enkidu).
My own characters turned the allegorical teachings of the tablets on their head with one theme: Mortality. Mortality became my whole drive for the book. I wished to create a book that looked at dying for a meaning, for a purpose, and for someone who you loved. Not only to die for them, but to carry them on and share the story. Of course, ‘Those who Remain’ is about all of this and a lot more. The fact these are the last two people, or the only two people in their world accelerates the personal and private nature of the story dramatically. Everything lives and everything dies.
The Frontispiece of sorts was informed by a quote by the Danish philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard, as stated below.
The crucial thing is to find a truth which is truth for me, to find the idea for which I am willing to live and die. ~ Søren Kierkegaard
Symbols and Connections
I weaved together many factual elements together from Mesopotamian history into my book, and tried to make it as genuine and believable as possible towards this ideal. Below, I will explore some of these. The full amount would be way too much and overload the artwork and story itself.
The book’s design : The circular shape is relative to the belief of eternity and the continual flux of life. The circadian nature is also relevant to a calendar, or a time map, too, which was heavily used during the time. The circle itself is the oldest shape-form and detonates the archaic nature of the book. Beyond this, I wished the shape to be like connective tissue to the themes infinity, the planets, and other circular patterns in astronomy, life and the universe itself. The shape allows for each page to form a sort of ‘world’ scope that is unique and rarely seen in a book. Again, time is a crucial element here and between the two characters, the number six can be formed, which is the same number as the pages in the book. Multiplied, this equals 12 and parallels a modern clock face.
Page numbers: I utilised the Akkadian cuneiform text directly for my page numbers. As such, each page number utilises an exact Akkadian glyph or “rune” as its number, which follows through alongside the whole Mesopotamian theme.
The front of the book: I have made a symbol that combines both human (Sera) and animal (Hurapu) into one. This is a hand with a horn coming out of the side of it. The hand being human, the horn being animal. Together they are combined and unified into one, showing the spiritual connection the two share.
The Journey and library, book and other themes: The journey Sera and Hurapu take is almost relative to the one Gilgamesh and Enkidu took in the Epic of Gilgamesh. The Journey starts off from Uruk, the city which Gilgamesh was the king of. Sera starts out alone from here and finds Hurapu along the Euphrates river. Sera, in the beginning, is cast out as exile from his city, and is a wanderer. Following this, he meets Hurapu and the two form a friendship. The friendship is so compelling and transforming that he eventually writes an account of the journey with the goat. This is relevant in the fact that the unknown writer of the Epic of Gilgamesh accounts the journey of both Gilgamesh and Enkidu. I thought what if a Gilgamesh-like character actually wrote The Epic of Gilgamesh and no one knew about it?
Thus, Sera sets out to write the epic adventure he undertakes with Hurapu in this ancient land. As Enkidu dies in the original tale, so does Hurapu, and emotional, spiritual and existential crisis follows this. Sera actually utilises Hurapu’s own body to make this book, ‘Those who Remain’, and the book is meant to reflect an actual archaeological artefact as if it was found in Mesopotamia. He sets out to deliver the book to the first library, in Nineveh (see the map above, under “Nineve”). What’s cool is that the major tablets of the Epic of Gilgamesh were found here, in this same place.
The friend becomes the ultimate sacrificial object towards immortalizing the tale.
As Sera reaches the library of Ashurbanipal, who was king of Assyria during 668- 627BC, he dies outside the palace. The final page shows this. I situated the story historically in line with the fall of Nineveh, which was slightly before Ashurbanipall’s time. The intention for this was to structure it as if Ashurbanipal had found it, then housed it in Nineveh in his Cuneiform library, where the Epic of Gilgamesh tablets were eventually found with many other first books. A.H. Layard was the primary excavator of the site of both Nimrud and Nineveh, who found the library of Ashurbanipal in 1851.
All these elements sort of fit together nicely, without being overtly insane and idealistic. So, the idea was to have them all be the under working mechanics of the book.
The names: Hurapu is Akkadian for “spring of Lamb, or kid. (Goat), which reflects why Hurapu is in fact a goat. Sera, on the other hand, reflects “wanderer”, or “desert wanderer”.
Sourcing of the goat skin: Before I made the book, I looked into Middle and Ancient Near East goat breeds – specifically ones that existed around the time of the Epic of Gilgamesh and the ones that still exist from that breed today. My purchase decision met the closest breed to a goat that was dying out at the start of the historical period. There were three distinct types of main goats in Mesopotamia. I came along a quote that read “…one breed had no horns, another had long handing ears: a third had horns which seemed to both grow from one point [from the head]. This third variety, which is that always depicted on the early monuments, was dying out at the beginning of the historical period”. This specific breed became the perfect choice for the story. I concluded to use a blend of real redsokoto skin with an illustration of a Nubian ibex in the actual book.
Design considerations: The horn reflects both divinity and also a curse. Sera shares a horn, or case of cornucopia, that unites him with Hurapu. The ‘etched’ look of the drawings reflect both my own style and the harsh nature of the skin; I worked on the un-sanded side of the skin, which I only realised after I had finished. The cracks and fractals I think actually have an old look to them, which could have not been achieved as easily on the smooth side of the skin, as the ball of the pen slipped very easily.
Liminal hero: I utilised this concept whereupon Sera goes through a rite of passage with the story and transcends the liminal threshold of material reality, into the unknown.
The story: Each of the pages have a minimal amount of text, and as such bring a much clearer description to the images. This was a very thought out consideration and I think a good decision, albeit very hard one, seeing as the amount of words we had to use were so small.
Photos of the book
Page 1:
Page 2
Page 3
Page 4
Page 5
Page 6
Of course, these images show nothing of the actual power of holding and observing the book.
I am working out how to maybe make this a digital book. There are numerous problems, but I believe it would be wonderful for people to properly be able to see it.
Please let me know your thoughts on this creation. Anything I will appreciate to the fullest measure. Any thoughts, questions, or anything, please take the time to reply, as I have taken my time to share this with you.
As always, peace.
Thanks,
Tom.
His Empty Space 