Butcher Joe

More about the book

In this notebook, Australian writer Stephen Muecke describes the works of the Aboriginal artist Butcher Joe (1902-1989), who depicted the key ideas of his culture in the drawings reproduced here. These drawings show places where the dead visit the living, events at the threshold between waking and sleeping--legends of dreamtime that explain how the universe came into existence and the laws according to which people live. As a portrait of the indigenous Australian aesthetic, these drawings and the descriptive essay in the notebook allow the reader insight into the world and life of the people and their mythical principles, according to which all things-be they animal, human, or plant-is viewed in terms of its potential to transform.