Bernice Nauta's Atelier

Bernice Nauta has published a book with drawings of an imaginary atelier she made in the past years. The place looks like a Nosferatu-Locus Solus-Golem workplace, although also Darth Vader can be found in a corner. Bernice made the first drawing of her studio on the 3th of September 2014, and then continued over a year, repeatingly drawing this studio from her memory. In the end there were 76 drawings. She kept a detailed administration of the dates she made the drawings (see page 3). 76 almost identical drawing. The meticulous administrative effort and the repetition (yes, it is possible to use the corner at the bottom as a flip book-film), make this work highly pataphysical. Alfred Jarry gives a definition of ’Pataphysics, the science he invented, and then explains: ‘Contemporary science is founded upon the principle of in­duction: most people have seen a certain phenomenon precede or follow some other phenomenon most often, and conclude there­from that it will ever be thus. Apart from other considerations, this is true only in the majority of cases, depends upon the point of view, and is codified only for convenience - if that!’ The exception fascinates Jarry much more, but it would probably be far more scientifically sound to describe each of the observations individually, instead of defining one general rule and neglecting the exception. And this is what Bernice did, 76 times.

B.D., Régent de Nautique Épigéenne

www.bernicenauta.nl