The Bloody Chamber

This project presents illustrations to pair with Angela Carter’s short story ‘The Bloody Chamber’. This literary work is strongly influenced by traditional fairy tales in particular the story of ‘Bluebeard’. It shows a consistent theme of feminism, in the inequality of genders. The nature of the narrative relates well to the imagery, as it includes include hidden objects conveying messages and secrets that are revealed as the reader follows the text.

The illustrations include a full colour cover, and a combination of full-page colour illustrations to be presented amongst the short story ‘The Bloody Chamber’. Each illustration is restricted to a highly reduced colour palette of variations of grey, white and red, produced with acrylics. The use of red relates the the violence and blood within the text of ‘The Bloody Chamber’ and emphasises one element of each image, which has significance to the narrative.