First appearing in 1415, Ars moriendi was a Latin text about how to achieve a good death. Endemic illiteracy motivated a swift ‘translation’ into eleven illustrations which communicated by using the shared religious symbolism of a common social imaginary. Concurrently, the printing press was coming into widespread use, and due to the urgency of its topic, nearly 50,000 copies of Ars moriendi were published. As a result of all this, one could make the surprising argument that images explicating how to die well are foundational to the modern west.
In 2019, I began using ars moriendi images directly, quoting the originals in the same method of construction used for my abstract work. To me, the logic is consistent, since both contend with the power of limits – one, the limits of rules, the other, the limits of meaning and mortality.
By pulling apart the original images in imitation of movable type, to my mind, I mimic the gradual dismantling of shared social meaning. It also conveys the fragmentary quality common to the contemporary life. Secular existence is porous. Modernity cannot dismiss the influence of a multitude of histories, enchantments and spiritual hauntings.