The Well of Being, a children’s book for adults written and illustrated by Jean-Pierre Weill
Near the middle of the book there is a turn.
Throughout the book each page of words is faced on the next page by an illustration. Near the middle is the statement “I don’t say there isn’t much work to do, for there is.” Facing this is a picture of a farmer behind a plow and a team of horses.
One turns the page…
“And some traces lead to excruciating darkness,” The illustration is iconic. Rail tracks lead to a concentration camp. Auschwitz.
The next page continues “where a person can tumble from the sky on a clear September morning.” The iconic moment is a body falling past a skyscraper. 9/11
What the images here cannot do is duplicate the act of turning pages and the sense of suspension that the white space provides. It is important to consider the white space as the next pairing of image and text in the series offers a highly stylized blue marble view of the planet and a set of questions “Yet is the world not whole? Is it not beautiful?”
This is at the core of the book and worthy of contemplation — what is in the hand are words and images to guide one to the well of being. What is carried away is an invitation to examine stories and ways of being in the world…
And so for day 2677
12.04.2014