“The beast, which you saw, once was, now is not, and yet will come up out of the
Abyss and go to its destruction. The inhabitants of the earth whose names have not
been written in the book of life from the creation of the world will be astonished when
they see the beast because it once was, now is not, and yet will come.”
(Revelation 17: 8)
This series takes its starting point from the final book of the Bible, Revelation, also known as the Apocalypse of John. In November 2020, I had the rare opportunity to see one of the first Gutenberg Bibles.
Printed in the 1450s, the Gutenberg Bible was the first major book produced in Europe using mass-produced movable metal type. Gutenberg’s press transformed the circulation of knowledge, making books and news available on an unprecedented scale. The Bible marked the beginning of the age of print — a technological revolution as significant in its own time as the internet is today.
The edition I saw was on public display for the first time in eighty years, and only for two weeks. Its beauty was striking: the illuminated text, symbolic imagery, and especially the image of the beast left a lasting impression on me. These images have continued to reappear throughout my work.
Reading Revelation today, it is difficult not to think about ecological collapse, climate crisis, and the destructive logic of excess consumption. In this series, dopamine molecules appear as symbols of addiction, pleasure, and instant gratification. Their structures also echo the constellations found in early Baroque star atlases. At the centre of the dopamine formula is a Blood Moon — a biblical sign associated with prophecy and the end of days.
I use black plexiglass to create drama, reflection, and spatial depth. The material suggests both a screen and a threshold: a surface between the physical world and another dimension.
