PETERS (Heather) &
SOCIETY OF HERMITS
Hypoxia
A breathing book
Fine.
In the words of Heather Peters, the book artist behind the Society of Hermits:
’Imagine a book that breathes.
Every living system needs oxygen, but our breath is threatened. Filled with poison from pollution and guarded by masks for safety. The term hypoxia refers to a lack of oxygen in living tissue. Extreme air pollution can cause this. It can also occur if a placenta or umbilical cord is damaged within the womb.
Mallarmé talked about a gust of wind breathing life into a book. This book examines that most elementary action by setting up a secondary system, a forced air system that mimics an act not unlike CPR. The book is the system. On the surface, a large clamshell box with burnt branches twisting across the cover. Opening the box reveals a display, like a stage before the play starts. Stark, simple objects with directions, an apparatus that pumps air, and a delicate book made of hand-beaten gampi with black flecks of burn fragments foraged from a forest fire throughout. Turning the pages while pumping, the lightweight pages rise and fall in a simulation of breath. A feeling of need takes over as the pumping action becomes familiar — a reminder of the delicacy, fragility of our breath. Hypoxia is a book both personal and public. A rallying cry in the softest tones.’
