La Casa Isla is an intricate layered work of documentary and fiction by artist Anne Golaz. It is informed by time spent on the island off the coast of Chile that was the inspiration for the place Robinson Crusoe was shipwrecked, which Golaz visited with Stéphane Goël during the production of his 2018 documentary film Insulaire. In this immersive artist’s book, the island is explored as a transitory space of hope and refuge and conversely of isolation and imprisonment. An evocative sequence of image and text places these ideas in contrast as well as resonance. In passages of prose and poetry, the island is laden with promises of solace and transformation, as Golaz’s narrator considers distance, memory, and mortality. Photographs, watercolour illustrations, and pages from the artist’s sketchbook punctuate the narrative, creating a textured and equivocal visual language. Beginning from close, sensory study of a particular place, La Casa Isla grows to form a transcendent meditation on exile and grief, the influence of cinema, and the nature and purpose of art and narrative.

Includes a booklet insert with French translations of all texts