Introduction to the Management
Throughout this presentation there will be an interplay between the artifacts and stories on the one hand and the notes, archival information and commentary from the staff on the other.
This will be presented alongside the exhibition materials so as to avoid bothersome footnotes at the back of the document which, as we all know, is tedious. The archival communications will be in a Italics to aid the reader in distinguishing this material.
This is a rare opportunity for the public to have a peek behind the scenes of the archives. This book is in essence about the archives more than about the exhibit materials.
This organizing of this publication is actually just an excuse for the staff to stay focused on their work and have a project to work on and participate in.
Without such a project the staff in the archives can languish in the never-ending studying, researching, organizing, filing, cataloging, etc. of the archives, it goes on forever.
In any case, we thought it might be nice to introduce some of the main players at the archives so that you have a sense of those working behind the scenes. The Exquisite Family Records Archives are, after all, a private family concern and we rarely allow access to outsiders.
We will be presenting the Director, The Curator, The Archivist and the Postmaster in a very candid and intimate way. I hope you find this enjoyably informative.
THE DIRECTOR, CURATOR, ARCHIVIST & POSTMASTER
ENTRY: The Visit of I.M. Anonymous
Filed Under: External Appearances / Artist Interventions / Ambiguous Witnesses
Document Reference: Ledger Fragment AE-4.77 / Event Classification: Threshold Occurrence
Preface: A Name Discovered in the Dust
It began with a proof.
An internal circular—unsigned but widely circulated among the Whisper Dock and Curatorial staff—outlined plans for a limited exhibition of photographs attributed to Ignatius Maximus Anonymous, the elusive documentarian of blurred epochs and minor impossibilities. Alongside the prints, a volume was to be published under the title:
The Exquisite Family Archives:
A Curation of Necessary Fictions, with Special Emphasis on the Anonymous Photographs
The problem: no one informed I.M. Anonymous.
Or rather, no one admitted to doing so.
Yet three days before the scheduled announcement, he arrived.
He wished to inspect the selected photographs to approve their use and to be sure that those attributed to him were authentic and not misattributed or forgeries. After all, Anonymous is the most prolific photographer of the 20th century.
His Return: "You Have Been Archiving Me."
He appeared in the Receiving Alcove as if stepping out of a half-processed image—coat flaring, eyes bright with the gleam of recognition long delayed.
The Curator, Thessaly Cerulean, found him standing beside a crate of self-reordering documents. He tipped his hat, held out a single sheet of cream-colored paper:
“You’ve been preparing a retrospective.”
It was a draft cover of the exhibition catalogue.
“You’ve been filing me,” he continued.
“Photographing without my body, interpreting without my name.”
“Which is, of course, entirely correct. But. I would like to take a photograph of you.”
The room stilled.
“Each of you. Where you work. As you are.”
“So that this book may include not only the curated illusions of my own eye—but the curators themselves. As evidence. As tribute. As question.”
Was he recording the stewards of his myth? Or the keepers of a theft?
No one knew.
He did not clarify.
The Individual Portraits
1. Rufus Ordex – The Archivist
He was photographed mid-inventory, surrounded by index cards, ledger slips, and drawers slightly ajar.
I.M. Anonymous did not ask him to pose.
He simply watched Rufus work, and at some unseen moment, the shutter clicked at exactly 10:10 am.
The photo that emerged showed Ordex gazing off into space probably calculating something, a clipboard in one hand and an index card in the other, as if in mid-correction.
When asked later how he felt about the photo, Rufus replied:
“I do not recall authorizing its existence.”
2. Thessaly Cerulean – The Curator
Her photographs were captured inside her office, one of her and a second of her shadow self, watching her through a pair of spectacles in completely different attire.
She stood barefoot on a large sheet of undeveloped film, her head tilted as if listening to a caption not yet written. The light reflected off her gloves.
She did not acknowledge the camera.
But she allowed him in.
Later, she remarked:
“He caught me in the act of remembering something that never happened as I watched me from a distance. That’s rare.”
3. Eulalia Crumb Exquisite – The Postmaster
He found her at the Whisper Dock, arranging letters that hadn’t arrived yet.
She offered him tea—though there was no kettle.
When he raised the lens, several packages began to rattle.
The photograph he captured shows her smiling almost, her eyes reflected in the brass slot marked RETURNS.
It is the only photograph in which the background appears to be subtly shifting, as if in transit.
4. Cecil Augustus Exquisite – The Director
Photographed in his office—the Room Behind All Rooms—at his desk.
He took a seat behind his desk, put on his spectacles and his signature bowler hat and looked directly at the lens also at exactly 10:10 am.
Cecil said only:
“Every portrait is a filing. Thank you for including me.”
The Group Photograph
The next day, they met beneath the carved stone of the south entrance.
No one remembered being asked.
No one claimed to have agreed.
And yet, there they stood.
The shutter clicked once. The image developed itself.
“You’ve posed,” said Ignatius. “You may now be remembered.”
Closing Note (Unofficial)
No one has confirmed whether I.M. Anonymous intended these images as praise or accusation.
He left behind no commentary - only the photographs and a copy of the publication marked “Author’s Compromise.”
Some say he returned home wherever that might be.
Others say the Archive kept him - his name now folded into a drawer labeled “Captured Witness (Quiet).”
We acknowledge the visit of I.M. Anonymous and generous gift of taking our portraits and thank him for them. As for our part, we share with the viewer our character profiles, our intimate inner portraits, warts and all.
To be continued…
This is so charming: the very strange voice, the ambiguous time frame, the intriguing promise. I love the AI portraits, somewhere between a novel and a film. You are having fun — and so are we!
This is really stunning. When I have dreams like this they are so fluid and somehow make sense to me. Your set up is as real as the rest of the illusive premises, illusive because even though we expect them, they eternally exist when we are already deep in them.
Cognitive processes are the mental operations through which experience is acquired, shaped, and reassembled. Dreaming illustrates the mind’s ability to acquire impressions, store fragments of memory, retrieve them in unexpected ways, and transforms them into new, often essential dynamics at the moment.
In dreams, the mind gathers scraps of memory and weaves them into a discernment no waking hand could plan. Dreams, and memories reshape themselves into strange, hard to deny truths of mythology without necessarily needing reasons, or of loosening reasons, or to establish no reasons at all. Sometimes reasoning is confusing, especially if it hasn't been uncovered for the non- meanings they may be.
The archivists seem to be stoic residents, keepers of titles, dates, mailings, not mattering who sent or received them. In contained containers regardless of the stories or purposes, dastardly or angelic, whose assignments are to update, and maintain, and store in archival vaults once they have been vetted from the past, present, or not yet completed enough to be a foundation. They have names for everything until there are reasons to find individual spaces near identical things, but discrete in their own cognitive domains, which can be vastly different.
The Managers keep it all straight and all organized, regardless of the chaos it represents. It is a style format needing to be identified and cataloged.
If I am totally wrong where my imagination travels in this story, that's OK. Your writing is thoroughly inspiring, even if I don't know where I'm going. My brain cells loved it! I can't wait to read more!