About the Principia Discordia Collages

Mixing found objects and stolen headlines, fine art drawings and photographs, police tape and musical scores, Principia Discordia is a limited series of collages.

Each hand-numbered collage is on 9 × 12 inches (229 × 305 mm) Bockingford Board.

The collage series is named after the sacred/comedic book The Principia Discordia because it shares a number of characteristics with it: a collage of appropriated materials, obvious self-contradictions and unusual humour, an exaggerated, often parodying and nonsensical technique, and oblique suggestions that there is serious intent behind the work.

From Wikipedia:

“The Principia Discordia is a sacred text of the Discordian religion written by Greg Hill (Malaclypse The Younger) and Kerry Thornley (Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst). The Principia is quoted extensively in and shares many themes with the science fiction book The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson. Both books employ an exaggerated, often parodying and nonsensical literary technique, accompanied by numerous non sequiturs and passages reminiscent of koans, as a vehicle for countercultural iconoclasm.

“The Principia describes the Discordian Society and its Goddess Eris, as well as the basics of the POEE denomination of Discordianism. It features typewritten and handwritten text intermixed with clipart, stamps, and seals appropriated from other sources, possibly illegally.

While the Principia is full of obvious self-contradictions and unusual humour, it contains several passages which purport to suggest that there is serious intent behind the work. Take for example a message scrawled on page 00075: If you think the PRINCIPIA is just a ha-ha, then go read it again.”