Giclée Print (100 copies)
Size: 18×24″
Artist: Brian K. Johnson
This textual portrait is composed entirely of Episode XVIII of Ulysses, known as the “Penelope” chapter—Molly Bloom’s stream-of-consciousness soliloquy. The artist transforms Joyce’s unpunctuated, breathless text into the image of a veiled woman, both emerging from and dissolving into the words that define her. The image is a statue by Greek neoclassical sculptor Leonidas Drosis.
Rendered in four vertical columns, the figure—modeled after classical sculpture—suggests timeless femininity, memory, and resilience. The work culminates in the iconic final line, placed distinctly in bold at the bottom right: “and yes I said yes I will Yes.”
The effect is both reverent and radical. Johnson gives form to thought, sculpting identity from language. As the eye moves across the text and image, Molly Bloom’s fragmented narrative becomes embodied—no longer just voice, but visage.
This is literature not read, but seen—text as image, thought as presence.