Broadside panorama of 12 linocuts housed in a handmade portfolio

Edition of 100

Printed by hand in two colors on cotton rag paper

Each piece is 4 x 6 inches, assembled  48 x 6"

2019

 

This handmade book consists of twelve linocuts, housed in a handmade portfolio with a magnet closure. It depict monsters loosely inspired by old Medieval and Renaissance cartography.

The twelve sea monster linocuts can be arranged and rearranged in 479,001,600 possible combinations!

Uneducated sailors were the main source for artist and writers describing life in the oceans. Their reports of wild beasts in the ocean became the basis for knowledge and natural history texts of the time. At the time scientists thought for every land animal, there was an equivalent in the ocean.

These beast-filled art maps were created less for navigation, and mainly for wealthy art patrons walls. Towards the end of the 17th century, sea monsters started to disappear from maps, as scientific knowledge grew.