HV_JSP_010 THE BLOOD COLLAGES _ JOHN BINGLEY GARLAND / LILLI ENDEL LEPP
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The Blood Collages of John Bingley Garland (ca. 1850–60)
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Mira Gupta
10 h
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The “Victorian Blood Book,” formally titled Durenstein!, stands as the masterpiece of John Bingley Garland's secret life as an artist. This folio-sized album, gifted to his daughter Amy in 1854, contains 43 exquisitely detailed collages created decades before the medium was officially recognized.
Garland constructed these works from hundreds of meticulously cut prints—ranging from Old Master reproductions to natural history engravings—layered into dense compositions characterized by horror vacui. The compositions are interwoven with extensive, tiny handwritten script.
The book’s fame rests on its most unusual feature: languid drops of crimson India ink, simulating blood, which permeate the pages, symbolizing the Passion of Christ and Garland's intense religious conviction. This unique blend of merchant-class hobbyism and visionary, proto-surrealist imagery elevates the book far beyond typical Victorian scrapbooking, cementing Garland’s legacy as a mysterious and powerful "outsider artist." The album was later famously owned by novelist Evelyn Waugh.
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