Ernst Will’s Picture Book

This videotape is an electronic rendering of a form of pre-televisual iconomania ; the creation of haphazardly sourced, private pictorial scrap books or ‘bilderbucher ‘. Often intended for the surprise, delight and edification of grandchildren by grandparents, these books collated random scenes from late nineteenth century life. The deliberately irrational composition prefigured surrealism and cinematic montage – the logic of placement of images could be determined by nothing other than filling up a partly completed page so the reader would see a fortuitous concoction of voyages of exploration, catastrophes, battle scenes and royal portraits.