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Eldorado

Item date(s): 2003

Gloria Helfgott

Pages: unpaged
Size: 272mm
Edition: #2/5

Place publication: Pacific Palisades, CA
Publisher: Artists Book

Additional notes:
Gold leaf, acrylic paste, ink. Limited variation artist's book. Drop-back box. Signed by the artist.

Reference note:
The pages of the book hold or reveal gold leaf strips on acrylic paste on the theme of El Dorado - which translates to "the gilded one" or "the golden one" in Spanish. It refers to a mythical, fabled city in South America, rich in gold, that was sought by Spanish explorers. More broadly, it can also represent a desire to inhabit a place of great wealth and opportunity, or an unattainable goal. The tiny black dots and lines accompanying the ‘bars’ of gold might reference a text such as The quest of El Dorado; the most romantic episode in the history of South American conquest by Rev. John Augustine Zahm (1917) or poem such as Eldorado by Edgar Allan Poe (1946) which reads:

"Gaily bedight,

A gallant knight,

In sunshine and in shadow,

Had journeyed long,

Singing a song,

In search of Eldorado.

But he grew old—

This knight so bold—

And o’er his heart a shadow—

Fell as he found

No spot of ground

That looked like Eldorado.

And, as his strength

Failed him at length,

He met a pilgrim shadow—

‘Shadow,’ said he,

‘Where can it be—

This land of Eldorado?’

‘Over the Mountains

Of the Moon,

Down the Valley of the Shadow,

Ride, boldly ride,’

The shade replied,—

‘If you seek for Eldorado!’"

Exhibition notes:
‘Small editions’, Jack Ginsberg Centre for Book Arts, Johannesburg. 14 October 2021 – 28 January 2022

Gaia: Dialogue between the book arts, natural sciences & plant humanities. JBCBA, WAM. Curated by David Paton & Ciara Struwig. 16 September – 12 December 2025

Ref: GB/2843