The Book of Jeremiah I-XX, 2023
The Book of Jereminah, 2022
Portfolio of twenty drypoints plus Title Sheet
Sheet 48 x 38 cm
Plate 41 x 33.7 cm
In late February 2022, as Russia began its invasion of Ukraine, Marcus Rees Roberts began working on a series of twenty drypoints using found images of the war from the news media. Using papier collé, he combined these images with drypoint. The fragments of text are from The Book of Jeremiah, which describes the invasion and destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BCE – the deaths, the rapes, the refugees, the deportations, the devastation of somewhere independent and beautiful. In the Authorised Version, the language, particularly in the early chapters, is urgent, passionate, full of a sense abandonment, and disbelief at what has happened. It has a terrible prescience and relevance.
