Susan Johanknecht

 

Working Note:

'Geomorphology'

PLATE  1 - 1.4  are to be read as visual strata; sequences to scroll down - draining, toxic, underlandscapes.

FIG 1 - 3  are textual waste-fossils.
Fossils are naturally formed symbols, where one substance imitates the form of another. Once  found, they become clues or evidence in an evolutionary narrative.

Nuclear waste is reprocessed into other forms (glass pellets, graphite rods) and then buried. It will be toxic for a duration of thousands of years, perhaps beyond future memory, when it could conceivably be dug up as treasure from the past.

Advice to Miss Buswell & Miss Ripley on Drawing Fossils'

Miss Buswell and Miss Ripley were artists working on the British Fossils series published by the British Museum (Natural History) in the 1950's and 60's.
The text is derived from the rules of natural history illustration which were used to see, understand, and depict specimens.

 

from Geomorphology: Plates 1-4

Figures 1-3

Advice to Miss Muswell & Miss Ripley on Drawing Fossils

 


BIO: Susan Johanknecht is a writer and book artist. She is currently Subject Leader of the MA Book Arts course at Camberwell College of Arts, London.


new writing index

table of contents