At age 17, George Widener (b. 1962, lives and works in Asheville, U.S.A.) began working for the US Air Force as a technician. In his free time he took up drawing. But his chronic depression and social behavior forced him into regular stays in psychiatric hospitals. Aside from depression, he also suffers from a light form of autism and Asperger’s Syndrome, characterized by an extraordinary capacity for mental calculation and a stupendous memory for names, dates and trivia.

His daily output features complex lists, calendars, diagrams, maps, codes and numbers written in ink on paper table mats stuck together and colored with tea.

George Widener attempts to give the world coherence thanks to a numbers system arranged within his magic squares. In his work, plane crashes, shipwrecks and important events in his personal life intermingle.