The Interior Castle
Jean Stafford, 1947
Pansy Vanneman has been in the hospital for weeks recovering and awaiting nose surgery after an auto accident. She is delirious, having retired into her own world which she has created, constantly thinking about her own brain. “Not only the brain as the seat of consciousness, but the physical organ itself which she envisaged, romantically, now as a jewel, now as a flower, now as a light in a glass, now as an envelope of rosy vellum containing other envelopes, one within the other, diminishing indefinitely. It was always pink and always fragile, always deeply interior and invaluable.” I painted layers of tracing paper with shades of pink gouache, and then lasercut the title and circles in various sizes as a gesture towards tunnels and mazes. I photographed these lasercuts layered up on light table. Futura is the typeface, with its sharp points that mimic cold metal surgical tools.
