"Things that are your friends but are not real." (Marina Warner)

“By symbols, I mean things that are your friends but that are not real.”

- Louise Bourgeois

As quoted in Forms of Enchantment: Writing on Art and Artists by Marina Warner, a current obsession.

I’ve been wanting to write about this book for awhile now. But by “write about it” I mean totally fangirl out and basically quote the whole fantastic, beautiful, inspiring, beyond-beyond-beyond book.

…so for now I’ll just give a shout out to the essay, “Felicity Powell: Marks of Shame, Signs of Grace,” in which Marina Warner mentions an exhibition, curated by Powell, that featured “lucky charms, amulets and folk remedies found mostly in London by Edward Lovett, a civil servant, in the early part of the 20th century.” This led me down an incredible rabbit hole. Behold, souvenirs:

More to come, or not!