No inborn ideas

From the work series origin of ideas

“ No inborn idea”
1998
Oaks, wax, lead, 40x30cm (closed)

In philosophy and psychology, an innate idea is a concept or item of knowledge, which is said to be universal to all humanity—that is, something people are born with rather than something people have learned through experience. The issue is controversial, and can be said to be an aspect of a long-running nature versus nurture debate, albeit one localized to the question of understanding human cognition. The statement “Non innate ideas”. was formulated by William of Ockham. He argued that the mind is in fact devoid of all knowledge or ideas at birth; it is a blank sheet or tabula rasa. He argued that all our ideas are constructed in the mind via a process of constant composition and decomposition of the input that we receive through our senses.
Again I used the material wax as inprint able metaphor on the one side, and a lead cast positive on the other. The book itself is display and printing press at the same time.
The protagonist William of Baskerville in the Book “Name of the rose”, by Umberto Eco is said to be based on the upper mentioned.