I died for beauty

2004

Handmade book using butter paper and uncoated paper

A visual interpretation of the poem ‘I died for beauty’ by Emily Dickinson. The book explores the themes and symbols surrounding Victorian mourning rituals using two central characters – Beauty and Truth. Hand-bound using french-folded pages, the book won the 2004 Gibson Pacific Award for Book Art as a Medium at the AUT graduate show.

I died for beauty, but was scarce
Adjusted in the tomb,
When one who died for truth was lain
In an adjoining room. 

He questioned softly why I failed?
"For beauty," I replied.
"And I for truth - the two are one;
We brethren are," he said. 

And so, as kinsmen met a-night,
We talked between the rooms,
Until the moss had reached our lips,
And covered up our names.