The artist’s book Infinity by Beatrice Dörig features one hundred line drawings of the number eight or the infinity symbol, which are part of the ongoing series Unendliche Linie. The works document certain periods of time and deal with the possibility of depicting infinity and transience. The continuous repetition of the same line as an unchanging pattern of movement indicates a potentially infinite process. The endless loop, an overarching theme of the work, becomes its underlying principle.
At first glance the publication appears as a facsimile of Beatrice Dörig’s original edition of 100 drawings, drawn with black ink on A3 vellum paper. Folded and interleaved, the drawings complement each other to infinity. For this book all pages and their visible subsequent pages were scanned to scale and printed on high-opaque paper. Through this membrane, which shifts itself between the individual drawing and its multiplication, a frozen image of the original work is created and, at the same time, an emphasis on repetition as an endless process. The idea of the work is once again emphasized by the medium of the book, in that it can be viewed forwards and backwards: beginning and end have the same sequence of single images and superimposition, resulting in a continuous, endless loop. The publication is accompanied by an essay on Different Infinities in Mathematics by Emil Müller.
Published with the kind support of Kulturförderung Appenzell Ausserrhoden, Kanton St.Gallen and Stadt St.Gallen.
