Black Hours was created from Sheryl Oppenheim’s 2013 series of mediated marble drawings of the same name. These drawings take their inspiration from a 1410 illuminated manuscript in the collection of The Morgan Library. This manuscript, hand painted on velum stained black with charcoal, is one of only a handful of its kind known in the world. It’s vibrant illustrations and metallic text seem to jump off of its pages similar to the way a black light poster dances in front of its viewer.
The edition furthers Oppenheim’s freedom through distance by mediating the content one more time through the process of converting each drawing into a graphic, black and white screen print. Black Hours contains 14 prints from the series of mediated drawings printed by the artist onto zerkal paper and drum leaf bound by Small Editions, hard cover in Canapetta cloth.