‘Touche not with Yron’ draws upon the tradition of medieval medical manuscripts, which, if regarded with 21st-century eyes, would easily pass as artists’ books. Medieval medicine regarded the human body as a microcosm, corresponding to the world, the macrocosm – while the macrocosm itself was conceptualized as the Book of Nature. The linking between the body parts and the signs of the zodiac evokes the hyperlinks of digital texts, which is manifested in the non-linear structure of the artwork, creating an anachronistic ‘analogue hypertext system’.

The text is based on an astrological compendium with medical references found in MS Ashmole 189.