Betwixt
Betwixt uses old picture books printed with images on both sides of the page. By shining light through the paper, Israel allows previously separate images to merge into singular composite forms, where figures, objects and landscapes collapse into one another and new image relationships emerge.
The works are made using a process Israel describes as a primitive form of X-ray, where light reveals latent image structures already held within the page itself. The resulting images hover between recognition and abstraction.
The illuminated pages are removed from their original books and housed within bespoke Shadow Boxes in order to preserve the fleeting moment at which the composite image first appears. Neither fully contained within the original printed images nor entirely separate from them, the works occupy an uncertain space between image, object and projection.
Betwixt Shadow Box, 2021
Bespoke cedar wood framed light box, double sided photographic image from a bygone picture book, 23 x 28cm
Betwixt Shadow Box, 2019
Bespoke oak framed light box, double sided photographic image from a bygone picture book, 29 x 24cm
Betwixt Shadow Box, 2018
Bespoke oak framed light box, double sided photographic image from a bygone picture book, 29 x 24cm
Betwixt Shadow Box, 2021
Bespoke cherry wood framed light box, double sided photographic image from a bygone picture book, 25 x 29cm
Betwixt Shadow Box, 2021
Bespoke poplar framed light box, double sided photographic image from a bygone picture book, 24 x 30cm
Betwixt Shadow Box, 2021
Bespoke cherry wood framed light box, double sided photographic image from a bygone picture book, 26 x 28cm
Betwixt Shadow Box, 2021
Bespoke oak framed light box, double sided photographic image from a bygone picture book, 24 x 30cm
Betwixt Shadow Box, 2021
Bespoke cherry wood framed light box, double sided photographic image from a bygone picture book, 22 x 27cm
Betwixt Shadow Box, 2021
Bespoke cherry wood framed light box, double sided photographic image from a bygone picture book, 24 x 30cm
© Jo Israel 2026
Images by Alex Brattell