An oversized, slipcase-housed, elaborately illustrated art book edition of THE INFERNO, one of the great towering texts of world literature. Welcome to a strange new Hell. Abandon all expectations, you who enter here.
British linocut artist Sophy Hollington brings her singular vision to Dante Alighieri's manificent funnel of retribution and suffering. And in that strange upside-down city, abandoned by God, she finds hope and humor amidst the darkness. This vivid and gorgeous edition features Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poetic translation of the landmark Italian poem, alongside a visionary suite of illustrations depicting Hell's vast architecture, an exclusive introduction from the renowned Ukrainian poet Ilya Kaminsky, and an original essay from the Dante scholar Kristina Olson.
A stunning new entry in Beehive Books award-winning Illuminated Editions series, this volume is housed in a shimmering die-cut sculpturally embossed slipcase, printed on uncoated acid-free paper, and published in an oversized 9x12" trim format.
Author Biography:
Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) was an Italian poet, philosopher, and author of the epic poem "Divine Comedy," considered one of the greatest works in world literature.
Sophy Hollington is a British artist and illustrator living in rural East Sussex whose main body of work is created using the lengthy relief printmaking process of linocutting. She weaves arcane and folkloric forms in to intricate, symbolically rich compositions which toe the line between feeling like archaic objects and futuristic visions. She is the creator of Autonomic Tarot, a collaboration with writer David Keenan, published by Rough Trade books in 2018.
Ilya Kaminsky was born in Odesa, Ukraine in 1977, and arrived in the United States in 1993, when his family was granted asylum by the American government. He is the author of Deaf Republic (Graywolf Press) and Dancing In Odessa (Tupelo Press) His work was the finalist for The National Book Award and won The Los Angeles Times Book Award, The Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, The National Jewish Book Award, the Guggenheim Fellowship, The Whiting Award, the American Academy of Arts and Letters' Metcalf Award, Lannan Fellowship, Academy of American Poets’ Fellowship, NEA Fellowship, Poetry magazine's Levinson Prize, and was also shortlisted for National Book Critics Circle Award, Neustadt International Literature Prize, and T.S. Eliot Prize (UK).
Kristina M. Olson is the author of Courtesy Lost: Dante, Boccaccio and the Literature of History (University of Toronto Press, 2014) and co-editor of Approaches to Teaching Dante's Divine Comedy (Modern Language Association, 2020) and Boccaccio 1313-2013 (Ravenna: Longo Editore, 2015). She is Associate Editor for Digital Dante and serves on the Editorial Boards of Dante Studies and Bibliotheca Dantesca. She served as the President (2020-23), Vice President (2017-20), and Treasurer (2014-17) of the American Boccaccio Association, and Vice President of the Dante Society of America (2016-18).
