Able Was I Ere I Saw Alba

Pigment ink print on archival paper
24x24"
Edition of 3


Alba was the name of a genetically modified "glowing" rabbit created as an artistic work by artist Eduardo Kac, produced in collaboration with French geneticist Louis-Marie Houdebine. Houdebine used a gene found in the jellyfish Aequorea victoria that fluoresces green when exposed to blue light. When Alba was exposed to such light, she too would glow green.

"Able was I, ere I saw Elba" is a well-known palindrome often attributed to the French leader Napoleon Bonaparte, who was once exiled to the island of Elba. More likely the palindrome was created in 1848 by someone with the initials J.T.R and residing in Baltimore, Maryland.