The booklet WB/CB…distillation is a exploration of a chance word choice / encounter with each of the 50 pages of Walter Benjamin’s “Convolute J ” in his magnus opus : Passagen -Werk, Livre des Passages, or Arcades Project as it has come to be known in English. Covolute J is titled simply “Baudelaire”. It is a compilation of research, writings, quotations and musing on 19 th century Paris and Baudelaire’s place in the metropolis. My work based on this book is augmented with watercolors inspired by the famous phrase from Charles Baudelaire: “tu m’a donné ta boue, et j’en ai fait de l’or.” ( you gave me your mud, and of it i made gold.)

To maintain a transperant reference to the original source book , “Arcades Project Walter Benjamin”, edited by Rolf Teidemann (tranlsation by Eiland and McLaughlin, Harvard Press); I chose to conserve the size , format and image of the physical book within my book. The fonts, colors, extra graphics have been altered to my purpose.

© 2021 Paula Hutchings