All humans ‘are books of blood — wherever you open us, we’re re[a]d’ (Clive Barker)
‘Books of Blood’ , a creative offshoot of Open Graves, Open Minds, project will be launched at the Being Human Festival via a gruesome ‘Show and Tell’ workshop at the Old Operating Theatre on Thursday 23rd November.1.30-3.30.
‘Books of Blood’ is a Gothic-inspired project and touring exhibition curated by Dr Sam George (University of Hertfordshire), Dr John Rimmer (Bishop Grossteste University), and Dr Tracy Fahey (Limerick Institute of Technology). It invites audiences to consider the body as a ‘book of blood’ that can be ‘re(a)d’, following the horror writer Clive Barker. We are interested in the representation of the presence of blood in our culture, in the importance of the material substance of life itself. A number of themes are addressed such as circulation, transfusion, donation, vampirism, blood as gift, blood ritual, blood and the body politic, blood as ink, blue blood, bad blood and blood disease (especially diabetes and haemophilia). We seek to introduce audiences (and medics) to the unsettled and uncanny nature of blood disease and to encourage them to think about the Gothic as a valid way of figuring issues of disease and infection.
To find out more see Sam’s Books of Blood Blog Post on the Being Human Festival site. In this post Dr Sam George discusses the ‘Books of Blood’ project which aims to change our perceptions, and fear, of blood. By exploring its representation in the past, this Being Human event questions how we think about blood in the present.
