Manicules (chapter 2)
2024 - 2025




Installation view, Holding Still, Holding On, The Andy Warhol Museum (March 2025) photo credit: Andy Warhol Museum








Manicule
2025

Gouache on whole vellum skin; linen bookcloth, oak, brass, woven book headband


“Here, hands have been decontextualized from medieval scenes of birth, surgery, mourning, and revelation. They have been left in red, the colour used to underpaint all manuscript illuminations. These have been interspersed with ‘manicules’; pointing hands drawn in the margins of manuscript books from as early as the 11th century. These hands were used as symbols of alarm and to draw attention to an important passage in the text. The manicule is a basic unit of annotation and commentary, gesturing at the text, unable to change it.”








Rubric
2025

Gouache on vellum; oak, brass


This is an image of a surgeon preparing to ‘blood-let’ a patient who was originally drawn lying naked on the ladder-like structure, and who has here been removed. The word ‘rubric’ in historical bookmaking refers to the red margins and lettering done on a manuscript page to guide the reader.








Colophon
2024

Unpainted vellum; linen book cloth, oak, brass


This fragment shows a scar, most likely a healed bug-bite, and tiny hairs. A ‘colophon’ in bookmaking is the last page, where the maker lists their materials.




Documentation by Chris Uhren