IN THE LAND OF JELLY CRYSTALS, 2025

This zine illuminates jelly’s role in philosophical vitalism, the idea that living things are animated by some kind of spark or vital energy. It is based on a 1926 promotional pamphlet from Royal Gelatin, that follows Belinda—a modern housewife who learns to throw parties with sparkling, substance-less desserts that she makes without a maid to help her, quick as a flash of light.

Jelly comes from a box of crystals, and with a dash of heat and water, blooms into a ruby that you can eat. I draw the pamphlet’s language of transformation and transubstantiation together with other texts about the power of life in crystals—John Ruskin’s 1866 book Ethics of the Dust: Ten Lectures to Little Housewives on the Elements of Crystallization, and early 20th c. writings and sketches by Edvard Munch. All of them promise to abstract flesh into a pure, perfect, eternal kind of life—so carefully arranged that it is static, and also dead.

This pamphlet, designed by Ben Lignel and illustrated by María Medem with a new Belinda, tells you truly—with promise and menace—that jelly is magic.

Printed and bound by Lucky Risograph in a limited edition of 150. This zine was presented at a dinner at the Center for Craft in Asheville, NC, in October 2025