The story is about reflection. The images are monotypes of figures reflected upside down in the mirror-like edge of the sea at low tide.

They are positioned in three boxes which contain mirrors. An integral part of the book is to open and set up the boxes to view each image reflected in the mirror through the transparent text.

The text in the box is presented for visual effect – the experience of "hearing" the myth is best achieved by reading it from the three-fold panels at the center of the book.

The text of this story has been set to catch the cadence and flow of the voice of a Native American storyteller. It is without traditional punctuation and reads unbroken across three panels to place the reader in unfamiliar territory. The usual grammatical navigation points vanish and the words take their life from an oral tradition.

Mermaid was commissioned for the exhibition  “JUST ONE LOOK” organized by the University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections Division in the spring of 2016. The exhibition catalogue may be viewed online here.

The catalogue includes the following text regarding Mermaid.

 "Hobson presents the perplexing ambiguity of the Salish story with a calculated exactitude in both his conception and his craft. The trim three boxes, each displaying a new beachgoer image, are designed to be placed open on a shelf to allow a sequential experience of each doubled image, and a reading of the story as it appears on transparent Mylar sheets on the mirrors and on an open three-part spread. The artist has, with a quiet mastery, taken the narrative fractures and the emotional ups and downs of the story and made them conform to an unobtrusive geometric scheme."