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Replica Papyrus

July 2015

The text reads: 'If you have hatred in your eyes, you will see it wherever you look'

What I meant by this is that people often project their own hostility and prejudices onto others. This can be self-fulfilling; if we show hostility towards others because we believe they are hostile towards us, they will become hostile towards us. It is a self-fulfilling cycle of hostility, born of an unfounded negative attitude. I think this is an important lesson, and something we should be watchful for in ourselves.

I have been interested in the ancient Egyptian culture for many years, and have wanted to create a replica of a papyrus fragment for some time.

I wrote the phrase in 1999, made my first attempt to translate it into ancient Egyptian around 2000, reworked the translation again in 2011 and drew the design for the papyrus, then finally created the finished 'papyrus' in 2015. I am very glad to have finally finished this project, and I am quite pleased with the result (although I'm sure any genuine Egyptologist would find no end of mistakes in my attempt at translation).