The Seventh Bardo: The Book

The Seventh Bardo is a hand-made accordion book featuring 43 photographs from my photographic series of the same title. A meditation on the modern journey, The Seventh Bardo includes both intimate portraits and haunting landscapes shot entirely over the course of ten years while driving on Southeastern interstates.  I present the interstate as a unique in-between space where we can step outside of time and geography for introspection and revelations, escape and liberation.    

From the series, I selected forty-three photographs to create a limited edition, handmade book in the form of a double-sided accordion so the book could unfold linearly, mimicking the nature of interstate travel. The book contains forty-eight pages of images printed on of Moab Entrada Rag paper with archival pigment inks. The covers consist of prints mounted to matte plexiglass. The book dimensions are 6.5” high by 9.25” wide when closed and when fully opened, the width extends to 20’ 10”. An archival envelope on the back interior cover contains a twenty-page booklet featuring a project statement by myself and essays by Alexa Dilworth, formerly the publishing director and senior editor at the Center for Documentary Studies and Ben Connelly, a Buddhist teacher in the Soto Zen lineage.

  · Entirely handmade, this is a limited edition of 24 books, each copy signed and numbered by the artist.

· 43 photographs printed by the artist on 48 pages of Moab Entrada Rag paper with archival pigment inks 

· Double-sided accordion structure, closed dimensions: 6.5” high by 9.25” wide and 1” thick. Opened: 6.5” x 20’ 10” 

·  Each copy comes with a signed, limited-edition print, 5.75” x 8.25”, printed on Canson Platine by the artist. Buyers can pick from 3 images – each an edition of 8. 

· The covers consist of impeccably produced prints, mounted to matte plexiglass and limited in this size and form to the 24 editions of this volume.

· An archival envelope on the back interior cover contains a twenty-page booklet featuring a project statement by Beth Lilly and essays by Ben Connelly and Alexa Dilworth.