When I did the skin layer for the Textile Body it was completely removable and required a simple treatment.This model had to set up a narrative though and so I began with the understanding, from my research, that most knife attacks inflict multiple lacerations to the arms where people try to defend themselves. This is not a pretty subject so as usual I looked to historical costume for inspiration and settled on a mix of Tudor and Stuart (1600-1800).
There are two panels to each layer/double page spread and so what appears when you first open the book is a pair of pockets on a silk coat. Looking deeper you see that the slashes in the silk reveal different fabrics behind the top one so easing you into a more anatomical understanding . The metaphor of coat as epidermal layers also carries the narrative which is performed alongside the book.
The pages themselves take the form of slashed silk embroidered panels with large pocket flaps and 'deaths head' embroidered buttons. When the pocket flaps are lifted they reveal silk organza honeycomb inserts usually seen in paper decorations! It took a while to work out how to do this as the paper version is glued and I needed to stitch...but it all worked out in the end!
Stab wounds appear throughout the book as buttonholes, some elaborate some plain. At the beginning they are ornate and sometimes oddly shaped echoing the messy cuts of kitchen knives.
up next: fat layers
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