cover image Inferno: The Art Collection

Inferno: The Art Collection

Dino Di Durante. Gotimna, $39.99 (84p) ISBN 978-1-62879-002-3

This collection of illustrations by Di Durante is intended to provide visual accompaniment for the first canto in Dante’s masterpiece, the Divine Comedy, but it falls flat in its depiction. Di Durante’s preface describes his creative journey, mentioning Salvador Dalí and Sandro Botticelli as his artistic antecedents. He hopes in his introduction that his work will “visually convey” Dante’s message in order that readers may “find [their] purpose in this life.” The bulk of the work consists of 72 full-page images, each depicting a scene from Inferno with a brief caption along with two QR codes; one links to the associated text of the book and the other to a web page where copies of the artwork may be purchased. Di Durante never describes the medium he uses, but the images are reminiscent of computer-generated art. The best of the images are adequate representations of Dante’s story but not more than that. The premise of the book is interesting, but its execution adds little to the story other than a visual aid. Color illus. [em](BookLife) [/em]