Jennifer Evers
Pasadena, California

Jennifer Evers is the Dibner History of Science conservator at the Huntington Library.

Joan Didion, The Year of Magical Thinking, 2005

This binding features a resewn textblock of Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking with ploughed edges colored in bronze acrylic and silk front-bead endbands. The green shantung silk binding is embroidered with silk thread. The upper board is composed of traditional mourning symbolism - a gravestone with an urn, a weeping willow, and snowdrops symbolizing both hope and sorrow. The lower board is embroidered with a large white peacock with feathers extending onto the spine. Peacocks are symbols of immortality and renewal, and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine - the church where John Gregory Dunne's memorial service was held - has an albino peacock named Phil that roams the grounds of the churchyard.
Shantung silk, silk thread.
5 x 8 x 1 inches; 13 x 20 x 3 centimeters. Created 2015.