Sculpting the Voynich Manuscript
Bizarre drawings of unearthly plants, mystifying star charts, miniature women in pools and strange, unidentified structures embellish the pages of the fifteenth-century book known as the Voynich Manuscript—accompanied by writing that appears to explain their meaning… until one realizes that the script does not match any known language. My sculptures are inspired by the manuscript’s imagery and the yet-unsolved puzzle of its meaning and origins. Using hand-sculpted porcelain, flame-worked glass, and other materials, I am creating three-dimensional interpretations of the original medieval drawings.
View my gallery of sculptures below and the manuscript folios that inspired them.
Folio 2v
“glimmer” cast glass, copper, led light (2020)
Folio 11v
“cracks in the code” Porcelain, glaze, gold leaf, wire, Led light (2019)
Folio 15v
“apparition” flameworked borosilicate glass, gold luster (2018)
Folio 48r
“flowers’ flight” Flameworked glass filled with krypton gas, phosphor, high voltage/high frequency plasma power supply, porcelain base with glaze and gold luster (2020)
Folio 53v
“arbor of alchemy” porcelain, glaze, metal leaf, wire, led light (2019)
Folio 73r
“Tethered to the stars” Porcelain, glaze, gold luster, flameworked glass filled with krypton gas, phosphor, high voltage/high frequency plasma power supply (2021)
Folio 80v
“what she wields” Porcelain, glaze, gold luster, flameworked glass, wire, epoxy resin (2022)
Folios 78r and 78v
“panacea” porcelain, glaze, gold leaf, polymer clay, paint, epoxy resin (2020)
Folio 82r
“Lightning in a Star” Flameworked borosilicate glass filled with krypton gas, phosphor, high voltage plasma power supply (2022)
“Blue Nymph” and “Sleeping butterfly” Porcelain, glaze, gold luster, flameworked glass, epoxy resin (2021)
To explore the entire manuscript that inspired these sculptures, view high-resolution digital scans from Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
For a detailed look into my artistic process, I document work in progress on my Sculpture Process blog.
Published Research:
Koen Gheuens and Cary Rapaport. Above and Beyond Voynich Canopies: Tents as a Recurring Motif in Beinecke MS 408. Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on the Voynich Manuscript 2022. University of Malta