Lijst met kerken en bezienswaardigheden in Parijs c. 1934s

This page from a sketchbook, titled "Lijst met kerken en bezienswaardigheden in Parijs" ("List of churches and places of interest in Paris"), was created by Carel Adolph Lion Cachet. Its most striking formal aspect is the contrast between the blank page on the left and the list of handwritten names on the right. The off-white tone and smooth texture of the paper evoke a sense of calm, which is disrupted by the dynamic list. Here, Cachet uses script as a semiotic system, each name a signifier of a location. Yet, the absence of accompanying imagery or context challenges our ability to fully decode these signs. This tension between presence and absence, legibility and ambiguity, prompts us to reflect on the nature of representation itself. Is this merely a practical list, or does it invite us to consider the structural underpinnings of memory and place? The arrangement of names, the negative space and the texture of the paper collectively turn the work into a meditation on the act of recording and remembering.