accident of birth | Stars the cause

A photograph of letterpress typefaces - the letters read back to front on grey metal
DISPLAY

accident of birth | Stars the cause

A gold horizontal flourish

   5 February – 10 April 2022 

 Blackwell Hall, Weston Library

 Free admission

Using the tactile qualities of letterpress printing, artist Hermeet Gill has created a response to the current Bodleian exhibition Melancholy: A New Anatomy.

In 1621, Robert Burton wrote in The Anatomy of Melancholy that ‘a physician without the knowledge of stars can neither understand the cause or cure of any disease’. Today however, astrology is held in opposition to science and evidence-based approaches.

In her work, Hermeet uses her own family’s history in the UK, Uganda and India to create three star charts which explore how earthly constellations of contexts, as much as the position and alignment of planets, may predict much about our eventual life path and mental health.

Events related to this display

A gold horizontal flourish