Book 31   Harm Done Penn, C. (2009) (Fig. 29). Harm Done.  Altered Book.  Photographs, newspaper and magazine cuttings, fabric, altered text.  17cm x 10cm 7cm.  Book 31. Collection: Cheryl Penn

Harm Done was one of the as the first books I started to make during my second year at UNISA (University of South Africa) in 2003.  Due to its negative attention  received at the time, it has only now been completed in 2009.  It has been the end product of a long process of thought.   One positive thing that arose from my years at UNISA was that, by consistently  producing a body of work which was met with displeasure, I was forced to reconsider a new avenue – every semister!

Harm Done was originally a novel by Ruth Rendell dealing with a detective on the hunt for a child molester.  How strange that  we are entertained by such subject matter, when it is so vile.  I collected cuttings from magazines and newspapers dealing with child abuse, parental neglect, pedophiles and related subjects.   I started working on the book again when the world was exposed to the horror of Elizabeth Fritzel in 2008.

Imagine my dismay, when less than a year later I asked someone if they remembered the woman who had been locked in the cellar for over twenty years. ‘Vaguely’ was the reply.  ‘Do you remember her name?’  It was obvious they did not.  The world has forgotten the horror endured by Elizabeth Fritzel and everything she suffered. Beset by so much other violence, she has faded like the old newspaper clipping she was when she made world headlines. , I made my next book, lest I forgot.