Manuscripts, monuments, and memories

The important series of large and imposing watercolours and inks on paper started with a month long working period in the Palermo City archives where huge piles of seventeenth century ledgers were transferred from a convent and stacked all over the floor of the library which is a part of the Casa Professa complex. Permission was granted to record the great beauty of this incredible event which remains to this day one of my most loved. The ledgers have now been properly shelved.
The State Archives housed in the ex convent La Gancia, Palermo
The works on paper are the result of two visits to the secondary location of the state archives where I was able to photograph the fascinating interiors of this complex and ancient convent.

The Archivio di Stato contains administrative acts dated from the twelfth to the nineteenth century and contain some of the oldest paper documents in Europe. The state archives curve around the ex cloisters of the Gancia francescana in a labyrinth of spaces, corridors and huge halls containing miles and miles of local history. My love of codexes and manuscripts was fulfilled in this mysterious and evocative space.