Verso of Cassiopeia #1

All the emblematic images Cornell assembles in his art are shadows, numinous fragments, or an unattainable wholeness. When Ondine, the water nymph, lived in her original home, she was at one with herelf and her native element. Then, drawn by love into the air and the light of ordinary day, she saw her shadow for the first time. She fell, like Eve, into knowledge.