Seeking Utopia

An original linen square sourced directly from the Panacea Society Museum. It is an off-white linen square cut with pinking shears and shown in close-up

Linen square - Original linen section

Panacea

An examination of the healing power of linen squares as used by the Panacea Society in my home town of Bedford. Is it possible to see or feel the zone of protection in the landscape enclosed by this invisible ring, or to identify the power held within the fibres of the material?

The Panacea Society was a women-led millenarian religious community formed in the early 20th century in Bedford. Their beliefs centred around three principles, that the divine included a feminine aspect, that Britain was a chosen nation and they system of healing was essential for individual salvation.

The healing was achieved by the distribution of transcendent power on small pieces of linen, which when soaked in water provided a healing drink. The society promoted the value of the blessed linen and distributed them free to over 122,000 applicants from 102 countries. The linen square were also carried for good financial as well as physical and spiritual health.

Protection Preparation I, 2020, Inkjet print, 32cm x 40cm

Protection Preparation I, 2020, Inkjet print, 32cm x 40cm

Protection Preparation II, 2020, Inkjet print, 32cm x 40cm

Protection Preparation II, 2020, Inkjet print, 32cm x 40cm

Protection Preparation III, 2020, Inkjet print, 32cm x 40cm

Protection Preparation III, 2020, Inkjet print, 32cm x 40cm

Protection Preparation installation, Intimacy Spills, Barbican Arts Group Trust, London, 2020

Protection Preparation installation, Intimacy Spills, Barbican Arts Group Trust, London, 2020

Panacea art installation, wallpapered map, mounted landscape images, framed text - etching, photographic image and archival material & linen in perspex box

Panacea, 2019 - Installation, Postgraduate Interim Show, Slade School of Fine Art, London

Perspex box mounted in front of map and landscape images, containing suspended original linen square & divine protection card, part of Panacea installation

Panacea, 2019 (detail) - Installation, Postgraduate Interim Show, Slade School of Fine Art, London

Royal Domain

In 1925 the society created a Royal Domain 12 miles radius centred on the campus in Bedford, by burying linen squares at the cardinal and inter cardinal points on the circumference. Each sector was visited on a different day when the linen was buried and recorded with a photograph.

Image of original archival map from Panacea Society Museum, showing a large red circle labelled with cardinal and intercardinal points centred on Bedford

Royal Domain - original Panacea Society map

Image of open pages 214-215 of How We Built Jerusalem by Rachel Fox detailing burial of linen sections around Bedford. Part of larger Panacea installation
Image made from an original Panacea Society photograph showing wet road with distant figures burying linen around Bedford to create the Royal Domain, 1925

How We Built Jerusalem

The Panacea Society published an official history written by Rachel Fox in four volumes (c. 1921, 1927, 1931, c.1934). The society had its own press and was prolific in publishing a wide range of literature.

Linen planting
October 1925

With thanks to the Panacea Society Museum archive, Bedford, for access to archival material

Royal Domain North (facing South) showing reddish brown horse facing the viewer in a field with three sheep behind a fence, early sun casting long shadows

North 52°18’4.44”N 0°27’52.70”W

Royal Domain North East (facing South West & Bedford) showing large field leading to trees in distance, with red and blue lorries passing, clear blue sky

North East 52°14’58.01”N 0°16’2.80”W

Royal Domain East (facing West and towards Bedford) showing view along empty unmarked country lane with green hedgerow & trees either side & clear blue sky

East 52° 7’45.78”N 0°11’25.85”W

Royal Domain South East (facing North West and towards Bedford) showing view across empty unmarked country lane, sky is obscured by high hedgerow and trees

South East 52° 1’32.10”N 0°15’28.95”W

Royal Domain South (facing North and towards Bedford) showing view across green field and footpath towards hedges and trees in distance with clear blue sky

South 52°58’0.58”N 0°28’44.66”W

Royal Domain South West (facing North East and towards Bedford) showing view across small fenced yard & farm building to telegraph pole and hedges and trees

South West 52° 1’17.95”N 0°40’21.53”W

Royal Domain West (facing East and towards Bedford) showing long view across green field towards hedgerow, trees & raised land in distance with wind turbines

West 52° 8’10.14”N 0°44’43.65”W

Royal Domain North West (facing South East and towards Bedford) empty country lane with footpath and footpath fingerposts, bounded by stone walls and trees

North West 52°14’45.72”N 0°40’47.03”W

EVO 25 Scanning electron microscope image of an archival square of linen from the Panacea Society Museum, shows close up details of textile weave & threads

The Power Within, 2020.

Image created using a Carl Zeiss EVO 25 Scanning Electron Microscope.

With thanks to the UCL Institute of Archaeology’s Wolfson Archaeological Science Laboratories

Perplexity I - a blind embossed etching print on off-white paper created utilising text drawn from the Panacea Society archive, printed in an edition of 25

Perplexity I, 2019

Blind embossed etching, 210mm x 297mm,
Edition of 25 + 3AP