Ficciones by J.L.Borges

Artwork by Marcela Marquez Costa

THE VASTNESS inspired by Ficciones, Jorge Luis Borges. A metaphor for the immensity of long gone memories.

Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius_ 1940

A city that nobody knows. Never visited, never seen - only mentioned in a rare

exemplar of an encyclopaedia... and even then, such document cannot be found

again. It is a place lost in time - or is it found in time? Time seems to be the

only dimension that matters there, defining their language and their thoughts.

Memory is all that counts, but no one seems to recall this place anymore.

The Circular Ruins_ 1940

In the dream the man is always saved by the waters - but what would happen if

the waters were not present to wake him up? As the character realises that death

will come regardless of the subaquatic refuge of the river, he embraces his

demise; he embraces the world’s demise. The illustration represents the circular

ruins of the Temple of Fire after this element takes over everything he knows,

leaving only the rocky and dry vastness behind.

The Library of Babel_ 1941

Ab aeterno. This carries an undeniable truth: the world will always be here; the world has always been here. And so has its knowledge. The library of Babel holds every truth and fact, every anecdote, number, letter, language. We just do not have the means to interpret any of it - never had, maybe never will. All that is left is to wonder where this infinite vessel of knowledge lays, a vast myriad of hexagons filled with all kinds of enlightenment.