Welcome to the "HandyMan Wanted" website, Roger Tober and Nige Copeland's entry for the HP Lovecraft's The Commonplace Book Project.

Lovecraft’s Commonplace Book is a written compilation of ideas: from 1919 to 1934, Lovecraft wrote down fragments, plot ideas and scenario outlines, all concrete elements he could put to use at any given time. The texts contain suggestions for story-writing (as many as 221!) as well as a list of "horror fundamentals", intended to stimulate the imagination. This book totally immerses the reader into Lovecraft’s world, almost as a witness to the birth of countless future stories yet to unfold. It is interesting to note that the Commonplace Book was actually used by other authors as a Lovecraftian source on which to base new novels and short stories. The Commonplace Book was selected for the base of the exhibition as it sums up the work of Lovecraft remarkably well. Consisting mainly of short phrases, it is much easier to use as a source of inspiration for an interactive work than a short story. The artworks produced will serve to "complete" the ideas in the selected excerpt, to develop it or to bring it to life (in a quirky way or not!). Each artist can use the amount of text he desires.

Examples of the author’s notes:

• "Man observed in a publick place with features (or ring or jewel) identified with those of man long (perhaps generations) buried."
• "Subterranean region beneath placid New England village, inhabited by (living or extinct) creatures of prehistoric antiquity and strangeness."
• "Ancient and unknown ruins, strange and immortal bird who SPEAKS in a language horrifying and revelatory to the explorers."
• "Individual, by some strange process, retraces the path of evolution and becomes amphibious."