MALLEUS MALEFICARUM
2018

Book published by BCU Fribourg & Meta/Books, Amsterdam 2018
Hardcover, 21x28 cm, 152p
Editor Delphine Bedel
Design Chi-Long Trieu
Image processing Aurélien Garzarolli
Texts by Elisa Rusca & Olga Yatskevich
ISBN 978-90-821182-5-4
French / English / German

Virginie Rebetez takes on a photographic investigation of mediums and healers, common in the catholic region of Fribourg and well rooted in the culture, learning about their identity and practice, as she places them in a broader historical context of witch hunting.
"Malleus Maleficarum is perhaps Rebetez's most ambitious and daring effort to explore the space between visible and invisible, to reimagine and reconsider the story in a fresh way. The past is brought in through the figure of Claude Bergier who was accused of witchcrafting and burnt at the stake in 1628, in Fribourg. Rebetez brings back Bergier by inquiring mediums about him, building then bridges between people and locations, separated by time and space. Malleus Maleficarum is unexpectedly personal and intimate book, reflecting on life and embracing the unknown, and at once boldly pushing the abilities of photographic language to represent the reality and beyond."
Olga Yatskevich