Robert Powell's Library of the Blind

Robert Powell’s Library of the Blind

where a point in space contains all points

by Tony Davidson

The Library of the Blind or Memory of Babel

ROBERT POWELL

etching and watercolour

39cm x 58.5cm

Robert Powell’s Library of the Blind

where a point in space contains all points

by Tony Davidson

Stories are everywhere.That’s what we eventually become: a story - that is either forgotten or housed somewhere. What an exercise to imagine all of everything in one place: all our stories in one library? One such place is Jorge Luis Borges’ Library of Babel. This contained everything - all books written and to be written - but also much gibberish and in random order. It sent the librarians mad. Powell’s Library of the Blind (Borges was blind) incorporates this idea as well as many others. Even his Aleph where one point in ‘space contains all points.’ I keep a magnifying glass and google near when dipping into Powell’s work.

There are too many stories and people in ‘The Library of the Blind’ to go into any one in detail, so I have given

The Emperor Qui Shi Huang’s army of terracotta scholars

Prospero Flees with his most Precious Books

This world is small, but are they looking at us as well as the stars?

The Library of Alexandria burns in alphabetical order

a list of those named, and illustrated a few of the panels in photographs. To go further, you will have to follow Powell’s reading list, and learn the tale of each individual ghost paged within the library’s walls. It is also worth looking up the word ‘aedicule’ before you enter. An aedicule was a shrine or a small niche in a larger building. In this way a church (or a library) could be vast and infinitely small at the same time. You could put an aedicule within an aedicule and so on infinitum. In this way, all ghosts and stories can be contained in one place.

Literature, art and even the real world is quantum, not Newtonian.

Here is a list of the named stories in this work…

Laurence and Hutton Amidst the Masks of the Dead

Hades Slips a Pomegranate Seed into Percephone’s Drink

OrpheliaTends Rosemary for Remembrance

Ennigaldi-Nanna Arranges the First Museum

Leontes Realised Hermione will Remain a Statue

Iphigenia

Choragic

Tobit and his Dad

Burying the Scholars

Burning of Books

Don Quixote

Diogenes Searches for the Bones of a King

Kora of Sicyon Makes art with the Archive

Nadar Photographs the Corpse of Abel

Noah Sails on an Ark of Extinct Beasts

ATree of Knowledge

Dreams of the Rood

Rudolf II in his Collection of Collectors

Cicero Teaches how to Die

John Soane’sTombTelecomunicates with the Dead

Orpheus Samples the Record Collection of the Underworld

The Library of Alexandria burns in Alphabetical Order

The Emperor Qui Shi Huang’s Army ofTerracotta Scholars

Prospero Flees with his most Precious Books

A tree of Knowledge Dreams of the Rood

These are only a few of the stories contained in the library. There are plenty more, but the filing system is a little complicated.

Cicero Teaches How to Die & John Soane’sTombTelecomunicates with the Dead