The WunderCabinet. The Curious Worlds of Barbara Hodgson and Claudia Cohen.
Vancouver, BC: Heavenly Monkey Editions, 2011. Octavo. (57)pp. One of thirty copies, signed by the authors at the colophon. As playful as it is studious, Hodgson and Cohen's modern take on wunderkammern, or cabinets of curiosity, is an elegant collection on collecting. Through a variety of media - engravings, drawings, photographs, volvelles, pressed plants, and found objects - they explore the innate human pleasure in and passion for collecting. They divide their gathered world into the two essential wunderkammer divisions: Naturalia and Artificialia. Within these, they address the wonders of natural history, with examples of evolution, metamorphosis, conchology, botany, crystals, and ornithology, and the nature of manmade wonders, with samples from labyrinths, geometric structures, rules of perspective, magic, scientific equipment, "exotic" artifacts, and timepieces. Hodgson and Cohen do not restrict themselves to the contents of the bound book, instead letting their selection overflow into a compartmentalized box. Here is loosely organized around a unique group of two dozen objects culled from authors' own collections. In this copy, counting among their number are a tunnel book, human teeth, a ceramic replica of a finger, some fossils, a small book of Japanese family crests, and cut- and folded-paper objects. Each receives a handwritten descriptive listing in a unique catalog, bound in gold-patterned pastepapers and tied with ribbon. The result, altogether, is a remarkable celebration of humanity and its place in the world, a tactile story of observation and impact. The book is bound in black leather with wood veneer onlays and gilt tooling, with gold marbled pastedowns. Box decorated to match. Fine. Item #32611
Price: $8,500.00