Illuminated Manuscripts in the Age of Social Media and Texting (2026)
I was holed up in Burgundy as Covid began to rage in 2020. In a corner of the vaulted furnace room of my house, I began working with gouache, tiny brushes, gold leaf, and calligraphy pens, standing in my own scriptorium in a little village in the Morvan forest.
This is my first foray into the world of illuminated manuscripts. My work for many years has incorporated text and art-historical imagery. But I didn’t realize until I was well into my new work that the decision to mash up texting, social media, and an ancient art form was eerily in tune with the times as well as my own history.
Glowing screens on cellphones, tablets, and laptops were, I realized in retrospect, the obvious illuminated manuscripts of the digital age. Back in Medieval times, the best they could do to generate light was gold leaf.
We live in a fast-paced age, yet everything ground to a halt as a result of Covid. Contact with others became difficult, even dangerous. Illuminated manuscripts seemed to be an invitation to slow down when the world is going a mile a minute. I surrendered to the labor-intensive techniques seen in precious pages hidden away in rare book rooms.
When I stumbled into this rather neglected art form, my manuscripts reflected my intense desire to communicate something of our radically changed lives. Now in 2024, working in my new studio on the top floor of my house as I write this, I see how they allow me to give expression to melancholy subjects, political frustrations, and the lunacy of everyday life.
All sheets are 22-1/2” x 22-1/2” gouache, ink, 22 karat gold leaf on Arches 300g paper.
L’Autruche, post on Bluesky, TEXT : Est-ce encore mon pays si je méprise tout ce qu’il represente ? Je frémis à l’idée qu’un jour, je devrai peut-être faire l’autruche.
(English Translation: The Ostrich, Bluesky post
TEXT: Is it still my country if I despise everything it represents? I tremble at the idea that one day I might perhaps have to bury my head in the sand.
Roasted Children, Text exchange
TEXT: Dinner’s at 8, see you then~! Making my famous roasted children!
children!!!
P@ssw0rd, [Required to enter into the wonderful digital world: a password. The one most used the world over: P@ssw0rd.] Based upon the title page of a Hebrew prayer book, an illuminated manuscript with the Hebrew word “shaare” for “doorway.”]
TEXT: kenaptekar [******** (password)] Remember me P@ssw0rd
A Good Boy, Bluesky post
TEXT: Ken Aptekar, kenaptekar.bsky.social New York, NY – May 12, 2021
Going to friends for dinner. Near subway entrance, trip and go flying forward. Smash my face on sidewalk. Now sitting on plastic crate from hot dog guy nearby, blood streaming down my face. Convinced I cracked open my skull, broke my brain, doomed to a vegetable future. No use to anyone. What to do? Pass out. Of course! Crash into metal subway vent, deep cuts, ambulance, emergency room, stitches. What you get when you always have to be a good boy.
Verba Gloriosissima I (“Most Glorious Words 1”): Δημοκρατία (“Democracy”), memory post on Facebook. November 3, 2020 was the day when Joseph Biden legitimately won the presidential election in the United States.
TEXT: Ken Aptekar shared a memory. November 3, 2025 New York, NY Five Years Ago Today Like Comment Share
Verba Gloriosissima II (“Most Glorious Words 2”):: Diversity
Text exchange of the word Diversity in 30 languages