Dialectical Reversal in About Two Worlds

Dialectical reversal in About Two Worlds presents a work in two parts. In the first part, pages from a facsimile edition of William Morris' Kelmscott edition of his late romance The Wood Beyond the World, has been overlaid with enlarged recreations of pages from Russian artist El Lissitzky's book About Two Squares. In contrast, in the second part, Edward Burne Jones' illustration of the Maid from The Wood Beyond the World has been overlaid onto a facsimile edition of About Two Squares. Morris saw beauty in the past, wanting to elevate Victorian society from the ugliness imposed by industrialisation, for Lissitzky, the Russian revolution and the rapid advancement of science and technology meant the old world was no longer recognisable. He sought a new visual language that could express the socialist world he believed he was helping to construct. About Two Worlds presents both artists work in a dialectical relation.

Keywords: About Two Squares ; Appropriation ; Contemporary Art ; Dialectics ; Edward Burne Jones ; El Lissitzky ; Installation Art ; Kelmscott Press ; Painting ; The Wood Beyond the World ; Willam Morris