Art, Symbol & Imagination
The Death Posture: Figure and Alphabet
A pale inverted body fills a narrow dark panel beside rows of signs, small diagrams and letter-like shapes. A triangular eye motif occupies the lower corner. The stark division between body and symbols gives this plate a different form from the book’s crowded frontispiece on the same theme.
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Citation
Austin Osman Spare. "The Death Posture: Figure and Alphabet" [editorial title]. In The Book of Pleasure, Austin Osman Spare. Complete historical pages of The Book of Pleasure (Self-Love): The Psychology of Ecstasy (1913), reproduced within From the Inferno to Zos, Volume1 (First Impressions,1993). Four preliminary pages and60historical pages, including Ernest H.R.Collings’s introduction and the original printer colophon. Supplied custom cover; not a direct scan of an established1913physical copy., 1993, First Impressions. Source scan leaf 20. Lumitheca. /gallery/image/gallery-20261108-0373-0020
Source details
Editorial title and description. Source details from the Library catalogue.
Descriptive title supplied for the visually reviewed historical illustration. The surrounding book presents the original author's interpretation.
Sources
From the book
The Book of PleasureAustin Osman Spare1993More from this book
The Death Posture: Spare’s Frontispiece
The Ascension of the Ego from Ecstasy to Ecstasy
Emanations of the EgoRelated illustrations
Cite this illustration
Austin Osman Spare. The Death Posture: Figure and Alphabet. The Book of Pleasure. Scan leaf 20. Lumitheca. https://lumitheca.com/gallery/image/gallery-20261108-0373-0020