Encyclopedia Thermica

"Encyclopedia Thermica" (thermica as denoting heat and energy) is a unique, innovative anthology, a collection of verbal and visual entries that stand as a quasi-poetic metaphor of artist Karen Russo's worldview. 

Drawing upon psychology, philosophy, criminology, music, the occult and mass media, the encyclopedia broadens and redefines well-known concepts. A reading of "Encyclopedia Thermica" is a journey into the dark world of the collective unconscious that crosses cultures and time: the esthetics of murder, the artist as criminal, the sexually-driven pheromone, the erotica of crime. A journey, too, through the dire forces of nature, both familiar and mythological: from a volcano's eruption to the phosphorous flames of decaying bogs ignited by spontaneous combustion, which also ignites/burns people internally. 

All these and more are found in the book, which contains several of the artist's works alongside a rich, intricate array of images interacting with the written material.

"Encyclopedia Thermica" is an essential book that straddles the line between the literary and the visual, between the critical and the experiential. 

Chaim Pessah

Omanut La'am Publishing

324 pages

Click here to read book excerpts 

Encyclopedia Thermica is available for sale for 89 NIS (£19). A special limited edition including a signed and numbered print is also available for 180 NIS ($50).