Empathy Bleed Installation

Empathy Bleed is a debut unpublished manuscript by Janenne Willis. The work traces two vastly different bodies of water — Wurnmarrinh (Western Port Bay) in Victoria, Australia and Ancient Lake Cahuilla (Salton Sea) in California, USA — the spaces in between, and empathy. It is narrative nature writing, simultaneously hyper local and globally resonant and features glimpses of photographic documentation.

A hand-bound artist edition of Empathy Bleed was presented as part of the 2026 Bombay Beach Biennale, along with a live reading of selects as part of the Biennale’s Philosophy Conference. The work currently lives inside an installation at The Bombay Beach Museum of Bombay Beach in California.

See more about the forthcoming book here.