Graphite on hand-made paper

31.5 x 23.2 inches

reproduction by Marco Wittkowski

"The archive, as indicated, was a peculiar world unto itself. I sat in a huge reading room and, over time, felt almost as dusty as the reading (British government files of the late 1950s) I was taking in. Under the ground of this spaceship-like building lie the storage rooms with miles of archives from the last 150 years: tons of old paper, miles and miles of meticulously written, typed and recorded documents from this and other important periods of government. So much accumulated file lore of the elite cannot be healthy. Accordingly, the building is even officially considered a "sickness building": anyone who works here can officially claim an increased h

As time went by, the students became paler and paler, parchment-colored, more and more mute – the only rustling was the turning of pages of the longed-for source text. Successfully, at some point I had completely adapted myself physically and psychologically to the prevailing conditions. A real treasure trove for behavioral researchers, this archive."

From: Tales from 1001 Doctorates, "Promotion as Pleasure and Experience Gain" by Philip Anderson, 2006, Klinkhardt Verlag