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THE CREATION FROM THE BOOK OF ENOCH: Five And A Half Hours In Paradise

Enoch face

1992. 42 X 33cm

Edition of 12 of which only two copies in colour, similar but not identical.
The rest of the edition comprises the 38 plates and facing text printed in black on double sheets of white Rives, held in a solander box with an etching printed in copper metallic ink on the lid.

For the colour versions, I painted the Velin d'Arches paper before over-printing the etchings in black. The text is printed from zinc relief plates which deeply emboss the paper. I inked the text plates intaglio with a thin layer of lighter ink rolled on the surface, making the words appear to float above the surface.

Of the colour copies, Copy A was bound Coptic style in mahogany wooden covers which I carved and painted. For Copy B, the loose double leaves, printed in colour as above, are held in a solander box decorated with additional prints.

THE COLOUR COPIES WERE ACQUIRED BY THESE PUBLIC COLLECTIONS:

Copy A: Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel, Germany.

Copy B: Rijksmuseum Meermanno-Westreenianum (Museum of the Book), The Hague, Netherlands.

Enoch 2


In 1989 I discovered in a secondhand bookshop the apocryphal Book of The Secrets of Enoch.

I was bowled over by this alternative and, to me, more eloquent version of Genesis and decided to illustrate eighteen extracts for a livre d'artiste.

In powerful and poetic language the Creator, speaking in the first person, gives his scribe, Enoch, an account of the first eight days of creation. Sample quote:

For before all things were visible, I alone used to go about in the invisible things, like the sun from east to west, and from west to east. But even the sun has peace in itself, while I found no peace, because I was creating all things, and I conceived the thought of placing foundations, and of creating visible creation.”

LARGER IMAGE FROM THE COLOUR VERSION

SOME IMAGES FROM BLACK & WHITE VERSION

BLACK & WHITE VERSION IN PUBLIC COLLECTIONS:

Kohler Library, Wisconsin.

Tutt Library, Colorado College, Colorado Springs.

Nielsen Library, Smith College, Massachusetts.