Twee compositietekeningen van een moordenaar, een stamper en een brief before 1890

This spread, of composite drawings, was made anonymously in France, sometime around 1880. It combines photography and handwriting with reproductive print. The images and text relate to a gruesome crime: a murder committed by a wine merchant’s assistant. We see two views of the accused, a letter he penned, and a drawing of the murder weapon, a thick glass siphon used to draw wine from casks. The banality of the materials contrasts starkly with the violence they depict. The criminal justice system relies on such mundane methods of documentation, yet the events they describe are far from ordinary. Moreover, the siphon, an object of everyday commerce, becomes an instrument of death. The page is a reminder that the most consequential events are often intertwined with the routines and materials of daily life. This challenges our tendency to separate “high” art from the more quotidian realm of criminal justice.