Image: Book Cover - 9 Images

THE GARDEN OF FORKING PATHS

Labyrinths, Fate, Time and Distance

I used a bowl and filled it with water and strips of type.
Floating in the water and tangled, the strips of paper become a
labyrinth of text. In the short story, the "labyrinth" is a book
as opposed to a physical maze. 

The narrator determines the fate of one man
named Albert. Shooting him in the back, he tells
himself that the author of an atrocious undertaking
ought to imagine that he has already accomplished it,
ought to impose upon himself a future
as irrevocable as the past.

The whole short story hinges on the conveying of a message.
In trying to tell the "Chief" the location of a British artillery park,
Yu Tsun tries to find a way to tell him. Tsun wishes "if
only I could shout loud enough for the Chief to hear."

THE CIRCULAR RUINS

Birth and Rebirth, Religion, Dreaming and Reality

The magician has to create another human being
through lucid dreaming. I wanted to show an
altered reality using glass and light. 

The cut-out, continuous people speak to the cycle
of birth and rebirth. One person cannot exist
without being born by another. In the end
of the short story, the magician realizes that
he also was created by dreams. 

Circles were a main symbol in this story. Alluding to this prevalent
shape and combining it with a ritualistic image, the circle of
candles give the viewer a sense of some sort of religious practice. 

Another angle

In the beginnings of trying to create a clone,
the magician has trouble distinguishing dreams
from reality, and is almost driven to insanity. 

THE LIBRARY OF BABEL

Exploration, Interminability, Order and Structure

The unnamed narrator describes the atmosphere
of the library as people constantly searching for
one specific book considered to be God. 

This shape symbolizes eternity. The narrator stresses the
endless shelves and books. 

Structured with hexagonal galleries, the library continues forever.
The narrator even says that if he were to die, his body would
fall endlessly, never ceasing.