The Bitter Cup

created: 2005
size 6 ¼ x 9 ½ “
materials: altered book, broken wine glass, ashes, charcoal
credits: The book is entitled, Witness to Annihilation: Surviving the Holocaust written by my father-in-law Samuel Drix, M.D, published by Brassey’s Publishing Company, 1994.

This altered book describes my father-in-law’s experience of the Holocaust, and pays a tribute to his heroic, tragic, inspiring life as a survivor. It is also a reminder of the ugly face of intolerance, prejudice, and hatred.

I used an actual hardcover copy of “Witness to Annihilation”. I cut the wine glass shape out of each page, then covered each page in charcoal, to obscure the text and to dirty it as if covered in debris and ash from the gas chambers. The cut out pages were then burned and placed inside the broken wineglass, standing towards the back of the standing book, where a black silhouette of the wine glass materializes on the back cover. The book rests on a large piece of Canson paper covered in a charcoal outline of the ghost image of the book.