"Helgenene,

vi skylder dem

ingenting"

Artist's Book by Vibeke O'Rourke

Poetry by Steinar Opstad

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2020

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Edition: 24

Size: 270 x 215 mm

Published: CrowPress, April 2020

Technique: Woodblock, Letterpress (Lead type), hand bound and

gold tooled by

Vibeke Luther O'Rourke

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In Collection:

Nasjonal Bibliotekets samling 

(Norwegian National Library)

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Produced and printed with kind support from the Norwegian Arts Council/Norsk Kulturråd

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In using the metaphor of the eternal seed bank initiative I have collaborated with the Norwegian poet Steinar Opstad in making this Artist’s book based upon his poem “Frølager” (“Seedbank”). This poem is concerned with how the future will remember us and the choices between a physical earthly paradise and a promised ethereal heavenly paradise.

 

This book is designed to enable the reader to experience the poem physically through colour, form, cross sections and linking the physical act of page turning to digging as one would move soil, excavating and revealing a buried time capsule. The physical form of the seed always inspires us to imagine the future, a potential promise of growth and good environment. Coupling this harvesting of seeds and growth with the prophetic and visionary nature of Opstad’s poetry we can think about what we all choose to preserve. 

 

A sense of an archaeological dig sits as a reminder that what we bury and hide today will be our message, Fossil, Relic and compass for the future. It questions our current relationship to growth, nature and the climate.