Natural Questions, 2020

Natural Questions is an artist book that takes as its source the book Questiones Naturales by Adelard of Bath. The artist has taken the 76 questions discussed within the book and has asked as many of them as possible to Google Assistant - an example of the technology we now use within our home's as a font of all knowledge.

Questiones Naturales was written at the end of the twelfth century at a time when 'scientific enquiry' was not yet a discipline and any speculative study had to bow down to faith and authority rather than reasoned enquiry. Adelard of Bath travelled extensively and used his experiences and study to form a book that both asked and attempted to answer a wide range of questions on the nature of the world through a fictional dialogue with his nephew.

In Natural Questions the artist takes the position of the naïve, curious nephew with Google Assistant taking the latest form of Adelard of Bath, the reasoning authority.

The work attempts to explore issues around our reliance and faith in science and technology; the limits and pitfalls inherent in 'laymen' enquiring 'from an armchair'; as well as celebrating the curious work from an age where attempts at reasoned enquiry were not the status-quo.

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Hardback A6 pocketbook in an edition of 3.