DISCLAIMER!!!

This work depicts horrendous facsimiles of threatening letters that were sent in the 2001 Anthrax Attacks also called "Amerithrax".

In this work I machine-embroidered handkerchiefs which confront us with their very scary content and I am NOT in agreement with what those letters say. I am much more interested in the way those attacks and actions of some are used to create fear in many and therefore control the people through the use of misinformation.

I moved to Montreal early October 2001 right after the 9-11 attacks. The Anthrax attacks, starting just one week after the World Trade Center attacks, created an atmosphere of fear. My studio was just down the street from the American embassy and scores of people marched past it, demonstrating against the declaration of the 'War on Terrorism'. I felt the need to point out the importance of looking beyond the things that scare us and ask questions about who is benefitting from the fear that paralyses us.

The attack was then attributed to bioweapons expert Steven Hatfill, while publicly connected to Al Qaeda. Today we think the culprit was Bruce Edwards Ivins, a scientist at the government's biodefence office, to save the anthrax vaccine program to which [Dr. Ivins] had devoted his career of more than 20 years.

As a post WW2 German I am very concerned how "The Fear Apparatus" works to control us... Who controls what we are scared of?