A curious dream that occurred between 4.00 am and 6.15 am. I was at a wake. A deceased middle-aged, slight, and dowdy woman in her late 50s sat in an armchair surrounded by friends and family. The small living room was in half-light; illumined only by a naked, clear-glass, low-wattage bulb. The cadaver suddenly reanimated; but, now, possessed with someone else’s personality — that of a teenage boy who’d been a street dancer in life.

The days are settling into a new routine: an early morning run, a light breakfast, and a period of reflection before work begins:

Morning. Having completed the booklet, I turned my attention to photographing those artworks from The Pictorial Bible III set that had no visual record. For this purpose, my bathroom was converted into a photographic studio. The room is completely white from ceiling to floor with balanced halogen illumination and blackout. It’s perfect.:

Now this may seem like a very unprofessional approach. However, there’s a precedent. The legendary electric guitarist, Les Paul (1915–2009) — one of the pioneers of multi-track tape recording — and his wife, Mary Ford (1924–1977), laid down tracks in their bathroom, because it provided them with exactly the type of natural reverberation they was looking/listening for. I’m drawn to this idea of the domestic studio:

Once the photographic process has been completed.  A number of the artworks will be set up on walls around the house. During the period in which the second and third projects in the trilogy were being made, I took down the works made for The Pictorial Bible I, so that they wouldn’t exert an undue influence over what was to come. Living in the perpetual presence of one’s earlier endeavours is problematic on a number of levels, in my experience. With sound works, you have to make a conscious effort to listen to them.

Afternoon. Just one more image to capture, and then the family can have the bathroom back. Some observations and principles derived from today’s engagements:

• Better, the follies of youth than the follies of maturity. Make your greatest and most embarrassing mistakes early on, if possible. The consequences of foolishness in later life can be ruinous for both yourself and others. And the scars may never heal.
• Discipline in one area of life encourages discipline in other areas.
• Your best at what you’ve most control over.
• Anyone who makes something worthwhile has the obligation to conserve and account for it. We must each be our own archivist.
• While nothing is beneath you, a great deal may still tower above.
• One of the greatest regrets you’ll have at the end of your life is the time you wasted on yourself, distractions, indulgence, and unnecessities.
• Reserve your fury for yourself.

On completion, I cropped and prepared the images and inserted them into the spaces prepared in booklet. Little adjustment to the tone, colour, and colour balance was needed.

Evening. So began the PDF-ing of the 78 pages of document artworks.