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B42 (Surrogate) was commissioned by the University of Oxford's Bodleian Libaries and devised with Sam Skinner
The B42 (Surrogate) is a leporello book based on the Bodleian's 42-Line Gutenberg Bible (B42). Called a surrogate, the artwork is a copy of the B42 that reproduces a short passage from Jerome's first epistle to Paulinus. This epistle features as the preface to the Gutenberg Bible and is thus one of the first passage one can read:
Legimus in veteribus historiis, quosdam lustrasse
provincias, novos adiisse populos, maria transisse,
ut eos quos ex libris noverant, coram quoque viderent.
We read in old tales that men traversed provinces, crossed seas, and visted new peoples, to see face to face persons whom they only knew from books.
On the leporello both original text Latin (in black) and English translation (red) are printed. The black ink acts as a touch sensor. When the printed letter are touched a reading of some of the passage's phrases are read aloud and mixed together in both Latin and English.
This touch behaviour was inspired by material research done on the Gutenberg Bible which showed that the ink used by Gutenberg had a high level on metal constituency (copper, lead, etc.) and is thus electrically conductive.
Credits:
Reading by V. Rev. Dr. Robert Gay from the Blackfriars Hall
English translation by Alan Coates from the Bodleian Librairies
Commissioned by:
