works > Illustration

Valerian and Unknown Skull’ is a small pen illustration inspired by the line in the ‘To be or not to be’ monologue in Shakespeare’s Hamlet:

To die, to sleep,
To sleep, perchance to Dream; aye, there’s the rub,
for in that sleep of death, what dreams may come,

Valerian, as depicted in this illustration, has been and still is a common remedy for insomnia, a flowering plant whose root is used in teas and tinctures.