Book Spheres, in solo show AN ANSWER IS EXPECTED, QUAD, Derby, 2014
SUSAN MACWILLIAM: Book Spheres
CONNERSMITH is pleased to present a selection of Susan MacWilliam’s Book Spheres, unique sculptures created from the covers of vintage books devoted to psychical research, ESP, telepathy, clairvoyance, psychokinesis and survival after death.
MacWilliam transforms these once-familiar book covers into three-dimensional objects. In the Book Spheres, she imagines the book itself as a kind of telepathic device: the writer becomes the sender, the reader the receiver, and the book transmits information between them—a portal through which knowledge travels.
Created in 2013/14 following MacWilliam’s research at the Rhine Research Center and Duke University’s historic Parapsychology Laboratory archives in Durham, North Carolina, the spheres bring together mid-century graphic design and a period of intense popular and scientific fascination with ESP, telepathy and the possibilities of the mind.
The Book Spheres were subsequently featured in MacWilliam’s major mid-career survey, Modern Experiments, which toured the F.E. McWilliam Gallery, Highlanes Gallery, Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre and Butler Gallery in 2016–17.
Published largely during the mid-20th century, these books emerged at a moment when scientific experimentation, popular fascination with psychic phenomena and a growing interest in the possibilities of human consciousness entered the cultural mainstream. Their bold typography, saturated colors and striking graphic design give MacWilliam’s spheres an unmistakable mid-century modern aesthetic.
Born in Belfast, MacWilliam has maintained a deep connection to Northern Ireland throughout her career. In 2009, she represented Northern Ireland at the 53rd Venice Biennale with F-L-A-M-M-A-R-I-O-N, part of her longstanding engagement with psychical research and extraordinary experience.
$3,000 each