Ruminous…

Photo by the Library Company Conservation Dept. - Artist Unknown 1850-1855. Paper mache or Papier-mâché. An ornate book cover made of iridescent mother-of-pearl elements on a black background.

in art

Photo by the Library Company Conservation Dept. - Artist Unknown (1850-1855), Papier mâché

Swimming Lesson by Nicola Bealing, 2014. Oil on canvas. Painting depicting numerous figures following or attempting to drag down a boat into the water.

Swimming Lesson - Nicola Bealing (2014), Oil on linen

From the set of Das Rheingold - Max Brückner or Bruckner (1896), Oil on canvas. This depicts a surreal green scene of what appears to be angels floating or swimming in deep clear water towards a light source.

From the set of Das Rheingold - Max Brückner (1896), Oil on canvas

From The Metropolis of Tomorrow - Hugh Ferriss (1929), Graphite and charcoal. Surreal lone tall building with stars overhead. This is the building where philosophy, science, and religion converge.

From The Metropolis of Tomorrow - Hugh Ferriss (1929), Graphite and charcoal

Isolation - Norwood Hodge MacGilvary (circa 1935), Oil on canvas. A rainbow appears over a lone rock in a lake or ocean. The background is dark, but the feeling is magical and moody.

Isolation - Norwood Hodge MacGilvary (circa 1935), Oil on canvas

Die Blaue Grotte auf Capri (the blue grotto on capri) - Carl Friedrich Seiffert (1860), Oil on canvas. Image depicts a small rowboat inside of a deep blue ocean cave. It is very dark, with the light emerging from the entrance to the cave.

Die Blaue Grotte auf Capri - Carl Friedrich Seiffert (1860), Oil on canvas

L'île des morts - Traugott Hermann Rüdisühli (circa 1944), Oil on canvas

The Labyrinth - Bruce Stark Lowney (1983), Oil on canvas. Image depicts a liminal or surreal labyrinth or hedge maze in dark green. There is a small gate at the entrance, and the maze extends far away into the distance.

The Labyrinth - Bruce Stark Lowney (1983), Oil on canvas

in music

in fiction

  • Labyrinths - Jorge Luis Borges (1962), Anthology

  • The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath - H.P. Lovecraft (1943), Novella

  • The Book of the New Sun - Gene Wolfe (1980-1987), Series

  • Piranesi - Susanna Clarke (2020), Novel