A
2019
210 ✕ 297 mm
Digital print, £7 +p&p

A explores the tension between the physical structure of the book and the conceptual form of its content. The work consists of pages bound in a traditional codex format, yet the images within refuse the logic of discrete pages. Arranged in a continuous horizontal sequence, they traverse margins and gutters, beginning at the top-left corner of the front cover and looping through the book until they return to meet themselves on the final page. In doing so, the content asserts a circular topology within a linear object, creating a paradox: the book is materially finite, yet conceptually endless.

This strategy draws on ideas of continuity and recursion found in literary experiments such as James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake, where the text forms a closed loop, beginning and ending mid-sentence. Like Joyce’s work, Circular Codex challenges the reader to reconcile two incompatible structures—the segmented codex and the imagined circle—inviting an experience that oscillates between materiality and abstraction. By imposing a virtual form onto the physical book, the work foregrounds the autonomy of content and its capacity to resist the constraints of its container.