Rudi Dornemann

New Andromeda Hotel

I wrote this piece a few years back, inspired by the artist Joseph Cornell‘s shadow box constructions, but never found the right home for it. However, when the online magazine Pareidolia Literary announced that their second issue would have a Wunderkammer (Cabinet of Curiosities) theme, I was thrilled that they chose to include “New Andromeda Hotel.”

Here are aquatints of lost kings and queens, birdcages lined with maps of the heavens, and glass-covered boxes containing games with odd numbers of mismatched but exquisitely carved tokens and boards covered with intricate eye-bending geometries.

These are all forgeries.