A Wonderful Plague by EveNSteve

A short granite post in the woods of the Cape Cod National Seashore marks an entry point, of sorts, to the large-scale artwork, A Wonderful Plague by EveNSteve. The six panel photograph with handwritten texts uses the 19th century outbreak of smallpox to weave a story about the history of disease and pandemics that connects to the current COVID-19 pandemic. Along the way, the viewer is taken to the illusions of immortality during the Bubonic Plague, the pock marks on the face of Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, the “4Hs” of AIDS (hemophiliacs, heroin addicts, homosexuals, and Haitians), and the Pilgrims’ laying claim to Wampanoag crops abandoned after disease wiped out their village.

The title of the work is a quote from the 1620 Charter of New England by King James I which cites “a wonderful plague” that cleared the land of inhabitants as a divine justification to claim the land. The text, which evokes these stories, is written on the branches of trees, on the picket fences and yards of village houses, in the sky above Cape Cod Bay and in the water below. These stories are, like viruses in the air, part of what shapes and makes our experience of the world.

Kasini House's Art Meets History has published a book about the artwork. On the pages of A Wonderful Plague details are framed by transcriptions of the text that appear in the artwork. Rather than be a reproduction of the artwork, the book is a different way to experience how EveNSteve share history and tell stories.

Read more HERE.

DETAILS: 84 pages | 9"x6" | perfect-bound | 2020 | ISBN 978-1-927587-34-8 | Published by Maison Kasini Canada