About the Book
EveNSteve’s 1680 House series, created within the historic William Haskell Home in Gloucester, Massachusetts, explores the haunting continuum between presence and memory. Each image—hand-printed on deconstructed paper bags and layered with symbolic markings in red, black, and white—merges the ghostly ephemerality of time with the visceral tactility of the handmade.
Rendered in soft, blurred light, the photographs depict solitary figures wandering liminal spaces. They hover between material and spirit, caught between looking out windows or turning toward the camera. The ethereal atmosphere is intensified by the use of fairytale hues: red (danger, vitality), black (the unknown, mourning), and white (innocence, spirit). These colors recall the coded emotional symbolism of folk narratives and signal the psychological terrain the work traverses.
Symbols drawn in wax and pigment pens—arrows, compass-like grids, numbers, and letters—map internal geographies more than physical ones. They evoke charts, spells, and alchemical notes. Their presence transforms each image into both photograph and palimpsest, suggesting that history here is inscribed not only in walls, but on bodies and time itself.
The Haskell House’s colonial history, with its Puritan austerity and layered domestic lives, becomes a resonant vessel. EveNSteve’s work excavates this interiority—personal, architectural, and historical—inviting viewers to imagine what remains in the air long after the living have moved on.
Rendered in soft, blurred light, the photographs depict solitary figures wandering liminal spaces. They hover between material and spirit, caught between looking out windows or turning toward the camera. The ethereal atmosphere is intensified by the use of fairytale hues: red (danger, vitality), black (the unknown, mourning), and white (innocence, spirit). These colors recall the coded emotional symbolism of folk narratives and signal the psychological terrain the work traverses.
Symbols drawn in wax and pigment pens—arrows, compass-like grids, numbers, and letters—map internal geographies more than physical ones. They evoke charts, spells, and alchemical notes. Their presence transforms each image into both photograph and palimpsest, suggesting that history here is inscribed not only in walls, but on bodies and time itself.
The Haskell House’s colonial history, with its Puritan austerity and layered domestic lives, becomes a resonant vessel. EveNSteve’s work excavates this interiority—personal, architectural, and historical—inviting viewers to imagine what remains in the air long after the living have moved on.
Author website
Features & Details
- Primary Category: Arts & Photography Books
- Additional Categories Fine Art, Fairy Tales
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Project Option: US Letter, 8.5×11 in, 22×28 cm
# of Pages: 20 - Publish Date: Jun 04, 2025
- Language English
- Keywords 1680, witch craft, evensteve
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About the Creator
EveNSteve
Pawlet, Vermont
EveNSteve is the creative team of artist Stephen Schaub and author Eve O. Schaub. Their artworks combine imagery with handwritten text to create evocative landscapes that tell stories and speak to history. They also create experimental short films detailing their artworks and their art-making process.