Tomi Um’s silkscreened accordion book illustrates the love story of Orpheus and Euridice, derived from Christoph Willibald Gluck’s opera Orfeo ed Euridice. The reader follows Orpheus into Hades on his journey to revive his deceased companion with love and lyre. As the story goes, Cupid allows Orpheus to descend into hell and accompany Euridice to Earth as long as he diverts his eyes from her until they arrive in the real world. Horizontal lines and a consistent
color scheme of navy, periwinkle, and orange sustain momentum throughout the story. Architectural elements such as ionic columns and brick facades accompany doves and suspended aquatic life, footnotes of the Greek aesthetic. The story ends with Orpheus stepping into an abyss of bubbles, algae, and sea creatures to end his life. Rather than reunite with Euridice upon death (as he does in Gluck’s opera), two text blocks underscore the disorientation and
aimlessness of losing the one you adore.