Stone, 2022, 15x21 cm, 64 pages, 100 copies

Images: Hanna Mattes, Louise West

Text: Hanna Mattes, excerpts from Man and His Symbols,C.G Jung (1964)

Design: Louise West

Printing: MeloMelo Lab 

“Stone” is a book showcasing rocks that I collected and photographed between 2015 and 2018. Apart from a couple of minerals bought in stores or given to me, the book is composed of stones I found on streets, in gardens and beaches, in meteorite impact craters, volcanoes and other interesting or ordinary places around the world. The images are accompanied by my own texts as well as excerpts from C. G. Jung’s “Man and His Symbols”.

The book celebrates the beauty of rocks, stones and pebbles. It shines a light on ordinary objects and questions the value we give to things. What determines the price of a stone is commonly based on beauty (its clarity, colour and cut), rarity, durability, demand, tradition and portability. Based on this logic, it could be said that any rock could be classified as a gemstone if it meets the above criteria. If they are presented like gemstones, perhaps they are?