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William Gibson and Dennis Ashbaug - Agrippa: a book of the dead

A collaboration between the artist Dennis Ashbaugh and the author William Gibson, this book is designed to self-destruct on use. A computer floppy disk encrypted with a virus contains an autobiographical text by William Gibson relating to the death of his father when the author was aged six, triggered by the discovery of his father’s old photograph album, a type marketed by Kodak in the 1920s under the name ‘Agrippa’. When the disk is viewed, the words of the story begin scrolling up the screen at a preset speed, the virus corrupting all the data. The first ‘reading’ of the disk is therefore also the last. The disk is contained in a cut-out portion of the book and is accompanied by a 46 page ‘text’ of DNA code and a series of copperplate etchings by Ashbaugh representing images of human genes, the latter printed in ink designed to rub off if touched which echoes the book’s theme of decay. Held in a dark slate-grey case with a base of honeycombed board reinforced with wire wire mesh and distressed paper, treated to simulate corrosion and fire damage.

- Victoria and Albert Museum

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