September 14 – 20 2017

Marianne Dages is a Philadelphia based artist who describes her work as “artist investigating the crossroads between image, language, and thought.” She will conduct a two-week artist residency on the Wells College campus to expand ideas found in her recent artist book, Objects of Unknown Use, during which time she will share her practice with Wells College students.

Dages’s residency is co-hosted by the Wells College Book Arts Center and the String Room Gallery, with support from the Wells College Scholar In Residence Program.

Artist’s Project Description:

Objects of Unknown Use is a book that reflects upon two very different systems of belief, aliens and death. Inspired by the simultaneous reading of three texts; a UFO encounter blog, a catalog of The Egyptian Museum of Antiquities, and R.O. Faulkner’s translation of The Egyptian Book of the Dead, the book weaves together the narrative voices of future and past, life and afterlife. In this book, I employ the language of collections, collected objects and experiences, to write a post apocalyptic narrative; the journey of a nameless traveler and their double or ka. Their voices intertwine to become a science fiction poetic text, complemented by atmospheric imagery of skies, ancient objects of art, and wings, symbol of flight and the soul.

An interview between Marianne Dages and H. R. Buechler (interdisciplinary artist, Victor Hammer Fellow at the Wells College Book Arts Center) may be found here.