Numinosity: A Fractured Memoir

Numinosity: A Fractured Memoir is a book audaciously modeled on the iconic Life magazine. It consists of six chapters, each an issue of a photo journal called Numinosity. The content is based on pulse-raising events of the times and Morganstein’s eccentric family history, woven into a fictionalized memoir. The issues feature articles written by invented personalities, all played by the author. In addition, she creates all of the advertisements for pretend products, making fun of consumerism with fond ambivalence. Like the artist Cindy Sherman, Morganstein uses her insecurities and swagger to make a larger point about the relationship of humor and tragedy in art, emphasizing that the key to liberating oneself from the past is embracing memory and creating a tragicomic story from it.