Roni Horn: Another Water

by Roni Horn

In this exquisitely produced artist's book, New York artist Roni Horn photographed the River Thames in London, exploring the theme of water as an ever-present, life-creating spiritual and physiological force that influences every undercurrent of our existence. Combining selected text with 47 full color, double-page spreads of the river's ever-changing surface, Horn has inserted footnotes that reference poems, short stories, records of dark and light events that took place in the river or on its shores, as well as the artist's own poetic reflections. An additional level is introduced by interspersed, so-called "Dead Body Reports", collected from the logs of Scotland Yard, that tell incredible and sometimes shocking stories of suicides and accidents whose secrets the River Thames will never fully reveal to us.

Genres: Art, Photography

96 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2000

Reviews

[Myriam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, dramatic pictures of the ever-changing surface of the river Thames (shot from above), accompanied by Roni Horn's wandering thoughts & reflections, references to poems (Emily Dickinson!), novels, films, events that took place in or along the river...
To taste in small bits, again and again...

'Black is a place. I don’t know what it’s like, can’t see it, but I know it’s there. You can go there – though it’s not fixed in location. Black travels well, it’s inert, incorruptible – like gold. And no matter where it is, it’s always the same. You never know much about it, it doens’t give much away (that’s the idea of black); you just have to go there. Black is where you can suspend your faith.'

[Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite books. Gorgeous tempting photos of the surface of the Thames with a running series of footnotes in a sort of train of consciousness fashion that get you to re-perceive water and more. Also has fact sheets on people who jumped into the Thames to commit suicide and objects they left on the bank/bridge/tied to themselves interspersed in the book.