Library of Dust

A while back (and I thought I’d written about it at the time, but a search reveals I hadn’t) I came across a project by the photographer David Maisel called “Library of Dust“, and since then I’ve kept on coming back to it.

From the project information page…

Library of Dust depicts individual copper canisters, each containing the cremated remains of patient from a state-run psychiatric hospital. The patients died at the hospital between 1883 (the year the facility opened, when it was called the Oregon State Insane Asylum) and the 1970’s; their bodies have remained unclaimed by their families.

The copper canisters have a handmade quality; they are at turns burnished or dull; corrosion blooms wildly from the leaden seams and across the surfaces of many of the cans. Numbers are stamped into each lid; the lowest number is 01, and the highest is 5,118. The vestiges of paper labels with the names of the dead, the etching of the copper, and the intensely hued colors of the blooming minerals combine to individuate the canisters. These deformations sometimes evoke the celestial – the Northern Lights, the moons of some alien planet, or constellations in the night sky.

Since first seeing the photos from the project (and the associated Asylum project) I’ve kept on coming back to them time and again. I don’t know why they affect me as much as they do – after all, they’re really ‘just’ photos of old copper cans – except it’s not ‘just’ a set of cans. I’ve shown the site to a few friends over the months, and they’ve all been affected by the images too, allbeit not quite to the same degree as I am.

Anyway, there’s also a book of the photos and project which I wishlisted on Amazon as soon as I discovered it, but never got round to buying.

I finally did so this week, following on from my birthday – It’s been something that’s on my mind for a long time, so it was worth getting. The book arrived yesterday, and while I haven’t looked through it properly, it’s already awesome. I don’t know how often I’ll look through the book itself – but I’m glad I’ve got it.