AustLit

'“Know thyself” is a Greek proverb. But what does it mean? Mysterious London art gallerist Ruby is jailed in Australia for the traumatic murder she cannot remember. When is forgetting a healing salve and when is it denial? So you can forget, you first have to remember. The psychological mystery novel is interwoven with art and medical history extracts, as Ruby time travels and revisits the past hoping to find the truth. This novel is interwoven with a series of digital pixel concrete artworks by the author to which the photographic series in companion volume Sayonara Baby-Fragments of Memory Images responds.' (Synopsis)

'Imagine if you forgot yourself, disappeared, and created a new self and life in a place where you are a stranger—how long would it be until the past caught up with you? The mysterious art dealer, the Countess Rivers, is in jail for the traumatic murder she cannot remember. As she paints and writs, readers are taken on her last art collecting trip, that did not go according to plan. From the art world in London to a community of mind-altering artists in Australian rainforest and cities, a lost object of desire returns with unforeseen consequences. Fugue techniques orchestrate the choir singing in this polyphonic psychological thriller told through the conflicting sexual-emotional perspectives of academic Sir Hugo Rivers, who is researching sexuality, and Ruby, his younger wife. What is the significance of the violinist and the music haunting her? ' (Publication summary)

'A book of photo art works by Ruth Skilbeck, and short excerpts from psychological fugue fiction novels in her Australian Fugue Series, including a poem. The art series responds to a mysterious series of pixel concrete artworks in The Antipode Room and is presented in the form of a catalogue of an exhibition in the new gallery space The Antipode Room at the (fictional) Ruby Love Gallery, in London.'  (Publication summary)