The Parasite, is a 3 volume artist’s book devised as part of Ross Birrell’s contribution to documenta 14, held in Athens and Kassel in 2017. The book consists of fragmented poetic text ‘variations’ in English, German and Greek made using words excised from the English, German and Greek editions of Arthur Conan Doyle’s short story, The Parasite.
The method employed in The Parasite was first employed in the text volume of the 2 volume artist’s book, An Envoy Reader (LemonMelon, 2014) designed by Marit Muenzberg.
The ‘translation’ process of using sections of available publications in English, German and Greek rather than translating from an ‘original’ English text was first adopted in the text, ‘What is it to read?’ (a revised excerpt of the earlier text work for An Envoy Reader) commissioned for the d14 Reader published in English, German and Greek.
The German and Greek texts for The Parasite were selected with the collaborative assistance of the translator Daphne Antonio, curatorial assistant for documents 14.
The Parasite was designed by Marit Meunzberg.
