Pairs of glass sheets, displayed like the open pages of books, sit on little stands low on the floor, each accompanied by an ultraviolet tube where the book’s spine should be, whose glare picks up the image of a 1950s sci-fi monster printed on the glass pages. The light will damage your eyes if you look too long.
The room is lit by a cold blue glow, like the darkroom in a nightclub. The UV light makes your teeth fluoresce. The creature is based on an early book jacket illustration for John Wyndham’s 1951 novel The Day of the Triffids. The creature has a bulbous hairy body, reminiscent of a pair of testicles on stubby legs, from which emanates a sturdy hollow stalk with a questing, plant-like stinger. The sexual connotations are unavoidable. The elements sit on the floor in a circle, like a study group in a madrasa. The elements are connected by various wires, and at the unapproachable centre of the circle sits a jumbled heap of protective eye-goggles.
