An artist’s edition based in part on the King Midas myth is to be published this December by The Artel Press.
By Unseen Hands is the first fascicle in a forthcoming instalment of an allegorical work by the writer and composer Michael Higgins.
This new work takes as its foundation the various mythologies surrounding King Midas, Alexander the Great and The Gordian Knot.
In the form of a short story, we are taken on a labyrinthine pilgrimage of the imagination, deep into the interwoven lives of a mystic, a locksmith and a fantastical spirit embodying two kings.
Hand-drawn illustrations by the author help guide us on the journey whose circular narrative is yet brought to a kind of mystical denouement – in the form of the celebrated Da Vinci knots.
By Unseen Hands is to be published in a beautiful artist’s edition of just 50 books, each hand-numbered and signed by the author.
The book will also feature a unique feature, the character of which remains true to the esoteric nature of this allegorical fragment – in that it will be hidden. It will however be discernible to readers with the right equipment or a honeybee’s photoreceptor…
By Unseen Hands
by Michael Higgins
A5 Paperback, 36pp saddle-stitched.
Printed full colour including 21 illustrations
ISBN 9780992603588
Publication date 21.12.20
Available now. Buy a copy – shipping w/c 7th Dec 2020
‘Bacchus Granting Midas’s Wish’ (Antonio Tempesta)
Credit: The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1951.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art (CC0 1.0)