The Book of Jeff

Martijn de Vos received a grant for the development of new work. The Book of Jeff is a translation of nearly the entire Bible into barcodes. The inefficiency of reading this book serves as a counter-narrative to our hyper-efficient capitalist and neo-feudal system, embodied by Jeff Bezos. Capitalism should be seen as a religion, one in which we must recognize our choice to worship its laws. One can choose to consume more consciously and less excessively, just as one can deliberately scan and translate the text of this book sentence by sentence, consuming it modestly.

Martijn is a multimedia artist, photographer, and director based in Amsterdam, with a practice extending to Tbilisi and Berlin. His work often exists at the intersection of different media, focusing on the transition between languages and forms. He translates sound into shape/image, forms into languages, and vice versa, exploring the relationship between humans and nature while critiquing capitalism’s impact on human well-being and ecological balance. Networks, structures, and systems are central fascinations in his work, guiding both his aesthetic and conceptual approach.