Animal photographs from dioramas and taxidermied animals, taken in the American Museum of Natural History in New York and the Museum of Art and Nature in Wiesbaden, Germany, are placed in relation to an excerpt from the ninth chapter of Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen’s text “Continuatio des abentheurlichen Simplicissimi” [The Adventures of Simplicissimus, Continued]. The excerpt is about the shape-shifting mythical figure “Baldanders” [the Soon-Another], and it also contains an encrypted secret text. The animal images take up a double-page spread in the book, with half of each animal appearing on the left side and the other half on the right side. The translucency of the glassine paper creates a combination with the next animal as the pages are turned, producing a hybrid creature. The new animal then merges with the following animal, and so on. The entire book shows an ongoing chain of transformation, with each hybrid creature becoming a new one when a page is turned.

15 color photographs offset printed, hand-set (Akzidenz-Grotesk), letterpress printed, glassine paper, printed paper-covered boards, 64 pages, 19.2 × 29.4 cm, 40 numbered and signed copies, Flörsheim 2016

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