Sunday 15 February 2015

cabinet # 54


Our beloved magazine Cabinet from NYC, has recently (since the previous issue) undergone quite a metamorphosis, changing its layout and paper. Nothing flamboyant though, the disciplined and reserved form still serves the recalcitrant magazine's content.
Issue # 54 is dedicated to accidents. Putting aside the delicious textual layers (fiascos, crashes, falls etc.), this is its mysterious cover which is worth a closer investigation. The Cabinet-makers explain it in a short text included in the new section called Kiosk: "Seven days before going to press, we called our fiend and colleague James Oles in Mexico City to see whether it might be possible to commission an ex-voto for this issue. By the next morning, James reported that he had managed to persuade folk artist Daniel Vilchis to take on the project". James Oles is an author of the article The Virgin doesn't care why you fall included in the same issue, which muses upon the mysterious relationship between ex-votos and divine intervention. Some details of the cover and other ex-votos from the Oles' article: