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Facts
Notable Acquisitions
Modern Book Arts
 
Contents
Forward
Introduction |
Dante Alighieri.
Dante's Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso.
Illustrated by Sandow Birk with text by Marcus Sanders.
Brisbane: Trillium Press, 2003-2004.
Acquired in part through the Walter Johnson and Morgan A. and Aline D. Gunst Funds.
These three volumes constitute a contemporary and dynamic twist to the three canticles of Dante's classic, the Divine Comedy. Birk, inspired by the nineteenth-century engravings by Gustave Doré, situates the Inferno (Hell) in the urban pathos of modern-day Los Angeles; Purgatorio (Purgatory) within the confines of twenty-first century San Francisco; and Paradiso (Paradise) in contemporary New York City. The writer Sanders composes a loose translation of Dante's cantos laced with popular American vernacular. The references to popular culture, however, are not limited to language: politicians and religious personalities such as Bill Clinton and Jimmy Swaggart appear as stand-ins for Dante's lovers in hell. Images of urban wastelands, the detritus of commercialism, and the alienated microcosms found under freeway overpasses blend with the text to form satirical commentaries on American culture, society, and our urban environments. Each volume contains approximately seventy hand-drawn lithographs. The volumes are bound in leather with gold stamping and were published in editions of one hundred each. |
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