The Other Side
2000
Book, 19.6 x 12.4 cm, 249 p, language: English, publisher: Dedalus Ltd., ISB: 1 873982 69 0.
Materials: ink, paper
Collection: Collection M HKA, Antwerp (Inv. no. B 2026/130).
Literary synopsis
Originally published in German as Die andere Seite (Christa Spangenberg, Munich, 1908). The Other Side tells of a dream kingdom which becomes a nightmare through a journey to Pearl, a mysterious city created deep in Asia, which is also a journey to the depths of the unconscious, or as Kubin himself called it, 'a sort of Baedeker for those lands which are half known to us'.
Relation of the novel to the artist’s practice
The illustrations for The Other Side are by Alfred Kubin. They were originally intended for The Golem by Gustav Meyrink, but as that book was delayed Kubin instead worked his illustrations into his own novel. In 1911 a portfolio of reproductions of Kubin’s ink drawings, Sansara: Ein Cyklus ohne Ende, consisting of works from 1909–10, was published in Munich and Leipzig. For the portfolio Kubin wrote an autobiographical preface, which was expanded in the second edition of Die Andere Seite (1917).
Authorship: Artist Author.
Creative Strategy: Artworks Cite Novel.
Publishing: Publishing House.
Theme: Death, Mass media, Religion, Sex.