Veronique Le Guen

She was alone in a cave, 275 feet underground, for 111 days. She had no clock or music to provide a rhythm to her life. There was no sunrise, no sunset--not even a change of temperature from a constant dank 48.1 degrees to give her a clue her if it was morning or night on the surface of the Earth. One "night" she slept for 31 hours. Another time, she took an afternoon siesta that lasted 18 hours, but when she awoke, she thought she had dozed off for only a few minutes.

Veronique Le Guen, who for 111 days lived in dank underworld isolation, has been found dead in a car, an apparent suicide, police said Thursday. The cave explorer was 33 and died of an apparent overdose of barbiturates. Her body was discovered in a car in northeastern Paris, said police, who called the death a suicide. There was no indication how long she had been in the car.

Veronique Le Guen, who for 111 days lived in dank underworld isolation, has been found dead in a car, an apparent suicide, police said Thursday. The cave explorer was 33 and died of an apparent overdose of barbiturates. Her body was discovered in a car in northeastern Paris, said police, who called the death a suicide. There was no indication how long she had been in the car.

She was alone in a cave, 275 feet underground, for 111 days. She had no clock or music to provide a rhythm to her life. There was no sunrise, no sunset--not even a change of temperature from a constant dank 48.1 degrees to give her a clue her if it was morning or night on the surface of the Earth. One "night" she slept for 31 hours. Another time, she took an afternoon siesta that lasted 18 hours, but when she awoke, she thought she had dozed off for only a few minutes.

For 3 1/2 months, Veronique Le Guen lived in total darkness 250 feet underground in a cavern in the Causses Mountains of southwestern France. Far from being a hermit or just a crazy coot, Le Guen, 32, was taking part in an experiment to test the effects of total isolation on the human body. During her 110-day stay, her only communication with the surface was by telephone.

When a Frenchwoman named Veronique Le Guen spent 111 days in a cave 262 feet below ground several years ago in a sensory-deprivation experiment, she had plenty of time to think about "the abyss I have inside myself"--while becoming increasingly disoriented and depressed. Los Angeles artist Susan Silton invokes Le Guen's experience in "Suspensions," five works at Saddleback College Art Gallery, most of which trace melancholy journeys into a woman's past.