Collage 506

Trish Crapo
from page 267-268, volume 2 of original text
collage, graphite
made 5/27/11
Pevear/Volokhonsky translation page 817

In this passage of War and Peace, Napoleon is sickened by the sight of the battlefield, strewn with wounded men and corpses. "Yellow, bloated, heavy, with dull eyes, a red nose, and a hoarse voice, he sat on a camp chair, involuntarily listening to the sounds of gunfire and not raising his eyes. With sickly anguish he awaited the end of this action, of which he considered himself the cause, but which he was unable to stop.

"...At that moment he wanted for himself neither Moscow, nor victory, nor glory. (What more glory did he need?)"

With a heavy heart, Napoleon writes a letter in which he yearns for the war and the war's outcome the way he had imagined them, writing that, "It was for the great cause, the end of uncertainties and the beginning of security. A new horizon, new works would unfold, all filled with well-being and the prosperity of all. "...Europe would soon have become truly one people," he writes, "...Paris would have been the capital of the world and the French the envy of nations!"

For this collage, I ripped apart a well-known map of Paris, severing the streets and railway lines, interrupting the civilized order of the city. Other materials include torn hand-scribbled pencil scrawls, musical scores and bits of wallpaper.