NATSHEPSUT
1992. One-of-a-kind.
Book: 40 x 15cm.  Box: 25 X 50.5 X 9.5cm.

The title combines Natalie with Hatshepsut, the XVIIIth dynasty female Pharaoh, with whom I have a special affinity. A 'sarcophagus'made from a mahogany drawer is painted with Egyptian and personal symbols and contains the book, wrapped in stained linen cloth, on one side of which I wrote a poem (see below) which is repeated on the pages. On the reverse of the wrapper are transfers of newspaper cuttings about the discovery of Hatshepsut's tomb and extracts from an old passport of mine. The book has wooden covers, carved and decorated with sand and sequins. It is attached to concertina-folded Arches pages and supported by a central wooden pillar. The images, printed on both sides of the paper from stencils, are a mixture of Egyptian and personal scenes including part of a landscape near the Rio Paraguay where I once lived, resembling the Nile.

The poem written on the wrapper and pages:

 

Whether she believed
that she would live again
or whether I believe
that I have lived before
makes no difference to the truth
whatever it may be
but the spaces and the places
where I have lived
in my mind
and in my life
are joined in time
by some strange
symmetry.

 

copyright © Natalie d'Arbeloff 1992