I am parched with thirst and I perish. But give me to drink . from the everflowing spring on the right, by the cypress.” Who are you? Where are you from?” . I am the daughter of Earth and starry Heaven.

“a book of whispers” is an artist’s book in two volumes. The first volume references sacred texts from six gold lamellae belonging to women initiates to Orphism, which give specific instructions for the soul to follow on its perilous journey to the Afterlife. The sacred writings of the gold lamellae have a metaphysical character. Perceived as “whispers,” fleeting hovering on the cusp of perception, of consciousness. these texts are given visual form as watermarks within flax folios. A watermark allows the sacred text to remain hidden, in a latent state within the fibers of the paper; it comes to life for a moment, as the reader lifts the folio and light illuminates it. In a companion book, an essay gives the personal narrative and the historical context for these mysterious objects. To make the voices of these women “heard,” the sacred texts are letterpress printed in pale ink as flowing ribbons in modern English and Greek.