ROBERT GOOD
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{Phaidonidae}

2013
​Field guides, Phaidon Encyclopedia of Art and Artists, specimen cabinet, entomology pins
Photography: Josh Murfitt


Phaidonidae consists of a collection of approximately 1400 butterfly illustrations pinned in an original Rothschild 10-tray specimen cabinet sourced from the Natural History Museum. The work comprises one butterfly for each artist profiled in the Phaidon Encyclopedia of Artists (1978), creating a new Family of lepidoptera, hence the title.

The work is a memorial to the memory of the artists, a mausoleum as it were in which the memories of their efforts and ideas (as documented by Phaidon) can be housed. It is also a reflection on museums and the nature of collecting, sequencing and organising as a strategy for understanding the nature of art.

​Exhibited at History of Art Library, Cambridge and currently on loan to Westminster Reference Library, London

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