John Bingley Garland (1791-1875) was a prosperous English merchant, politician, public servant, and collage artist. He assembled a manuscript of forty-five "Blood Collages," often referred to as the 'Victorian Blood Book.' Drawing heavily on high-end reproductive prints of European masterworks, particularly religious art, as well as colorful, cheaply manufactured prints of flora, fauna, insects, and reptiles, Garland meticulously cut and assembled hundreds of prints as source material to create astonishing, visionary collages. The works include extensive inscriptions of religious texts, gold and blue paper, painted gouache, and his signature drops of blood made with diluted red ink. They also feature many symbols, such as bleeding doves and crosses, red ankhs (an Egyptian hieroglyph symbolizing life), serpents, skulls, stars, and eggs—mixed with Christian and pagan imagery, architecture and ruins, sculpture, and archaeological fragments.
John Bingley Garland (1791-1875) was a prosperous English merchant, politician, public servant, and collage artist. He assembled a manuscript of forty-five "Blood Collages," often referred to as the 'Victorian Blood Book.' Drawing heavily on high-end reproductive prints of European masterworks, particularly religious art, as well as colorful, cheaply manufactured prints of flora, fauna, insects, and reptiles, Garland meticulously cut and assembled hundreds of prints as source material to create astonishing, visionary collages. The works include extensive inscriptions of religious texts, gold and blue paper, painted gouache, and his signature drops of blood made with diluted red ink. They also feature many symbols, such as bleeding doves and crosses, red ankhs (an Egyptian hieroglyph symbolizing life), serpents, skulls, stars, and eggs—mixed with Christian and pagan imagery, architecture and ruins, sculpture, and archaeological fragments.