The Book of Urizen

About this book

Urizen bends over his work as though making laws for the universe. In William Blake's illuminated poem, the figure's measuring and division have terrible consequences for the beings caught inside his creation.

The Book of Urizen gives Blake's private mythology a harsh visual and verbal form. Los, Enitharmon and the emerging world appear through engraved pages where lettering, bodies and flames are part of the same composition. The narrative can be difficult to follow as conventional myth, but the images of confinement and separation are immediate. Blake makes the creation of a universe feel like an act that wounds its maker.