Art helps us make sense of the world, but also reminds us how fragile and uncertain that sense can be. The Nothing There Is speaks to our innate desire to connect, to find and share meaning, even when meaning slips away or resists translation. We are reminded of the historic figure of the witch—those who used symbolic language, folk wisdom, and ritual to make meaning in opaque ways. Their mystery was once feared, punished, and suppressed. Yet mystery can also be a source of beauty, power, and hope.
One evening, in a restaurant, we noticed a nearby television airing the Paris Olympics closing ceremony. A costumed performer stood in the spotlight, singing in French. The closed captioning read: Singing in a Global Language. That was a lightbulb moment: isn't that what artists attempt to do—speak beyond borders, through emotion, gesture, and symbol?
This project asks: Can we connect through a shared visual and emotional language, even when words fail?
Our medium is mixed media photography and film. We shoot with traditional film cameras and print images on hand-coated sheets made from deconstructed brown paper bags—transforming the disposable into the precious. Each image is then hand-inscribed with a dense symbolic language using pen and wax. The effect is akin to pre-Rosetta Stone hieroglyphics: visually potent, emotionally charged, but intentionally obscure—inviting multiple readings and resisting singular interpretation.
Our short experimental films extend the reach of this language. As artists working through the years of the pandemic, we found that a cinematic presentation can address the limitations of experiencing art in digital space, using sound and movement to create a deeper resonance. They offer viewers a more embodied, immersive experience—a way to enter the work emotionally and physically, rather than just visually.
Our work seeks to engage on many levels: emotional, intellectual, and spiritual. Through enigmatic gestures, layered symbols, and ambiguous figures, we challenge viewers to sit with uncertainty and consider how meaning is formed—not only in what is seen, but in what is sensed.
Medium and Technique
The origins of this process began in 2004, when Steve encountered a Joan Miró exhibition featuring paintings on brown paper. That material choice stayed with him. Years later, it became the basis for a painstaking technical journey: sourcing acid-free papers of specific weight, converting grocery bags into printable sheets, and calibrating printers to work with unconventional surfaces.
Our photographic process evolved through multiple vintage and experimental formats. We began with 110 film, then used rare 35mm panoramic toy cameras, and most recently, subminiature Minox “spy cameras” from the 1930s—the smallest film format available. Steve developed custom workflows for cutting film, devising development processes, and even converting images via microscope—blending analog craft with digital ingenuity.
Eve’s research grounds the symbolic language within deeper cultural and philosophical frameworks. Influences include The Symbol Sourcebook by Henry Dreyfuss, An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Traditional Symbols by J.C. Cooper, The Nothing That Is by Robert Kaplan, and Witchcraft: A History in Thirteen Trials by Marion Gibson. These texts shape everything from our locations and poses to the signs and inscriptions layered onto each piece.
As a collaborative team working under the name EveNSteve since 2019, our process is fluid and iterative. Steve photographs; Eve often appears in the image. Together, we make aesthetic decisions about tone, scale, and composition. Then, through a back-and-forth process, we build the symbolic inscriptions—each piece a record of our shared language and evolving dialogue.
The Nothing There Is marks a pivotal point in our careers, representing the culmination of over 60 combined years of creative practice. It is the most mature and conceptually realized body of work we’ve created—an ambitious attempt to reconcile the ineffable, the mystical, and the human.
