Infinity

Argentine artist Bernasconi pairs poetic metaphors with a series of multimedia spreads in this startling volume that muses on the concept of infinity. Text on the left (“It’s/ the eye of an artist/ just before/ he starts drawing”) appears opposite artwork on the right (dozens of colored pencil points are packed together to represent an iris). The book’s epigraph by Shakespeare—“I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count myself a King of infinite space”—inspires occasional wordless spreads of a monarch appearing alongside creatures whose bodies contain the mathematical symbol for infinity. Throughout, metaphors frequently involve the act of making (“It’s/ a golden sunrise/ and a painter with a huge tube/ of gray oil paint”) and display Calvino-level interest in the tension between comedy and futility throughout space and time (“It’s/ a carpenter/ waiting for the love of his life/ in the wrong life”). Rendered alongside unexplained equations and symbols (“some are personal, others mystical or mythical” reads a note), each spread lands with a conceptual splash before moving briskly on to the next; together, they comprise a remarkable thought experiment for readers of all ages. Ages 9–up. [em](Mar.) [/em]