David Jones, artist and poet (1895-1974) begins his PREFACE TO THE ANATHEMATA :
'I have made a heap of all that I could find.' (1) So wrote Nennius, or whoever composed the introductory matter to Historia Brittonum. He speaks of an 'inward wound' which was caused by the fear that certain things dear to him 'should be like smoke dissipated'. Further, he says, 'not trusting my own learning, which is none at all, but partly from writings and monuments of the ancient inhabitants of Britain, partly from the annals of the Romans and the chronicles of the sacred fathers, Isidore, Hieronymous, Prosper, Eusebius and from the histories of the Scots and Saxons although our enemies . . . I have lispingly put together this . . . about past transactions, that [this material] might not be trodden under foot'. (2)
(1) The actual words are coacervavi omne quod inveni, and occur in Prologue 2 to the Historia.
(2) Quoted from the translation of Prologue 1. See The Works of Gildas and Nennius, J.A.Giles, London 1841.
Staff at our Paris bureau have been sorting through the in-house archive from their fin de siècle period.
In 2013, we will share some of that with you.
In the mean time, we had asked them to keep a lookout for anything that might serve as Regard for a Christmas Tree.
Le Bingo! Here's a detail of their artist's brushwork drawing, with caption ("Nous avons pourtant été plantés le même jour!..") and blue pencil layout instructions: section a, section b, a-b width etc
click image to enlarge
And from that, out of the diamond matrix, emerges our 2012 bLOGOS/HA HA Christmas Tree Regard.
Tomorrow, at the foot of this tree, we'll put a little something for you.
detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something ...
LOGOS/HA HA
