L’Inferno di Dante

Artist Michael Mazur does something unusual in illustrating Dante’s Inferno: He lets us behold Dante Alighieri’s world through the poet’s eyes, not in third person. The harrowing vision is a project Mazur undertook from 1994 to 2000 in response to a translation by poet Robert Pinsky. Mazur considered this the most ambitious project in his life. Pinsky said that Mazur’s etchings “are themselves acts of translation.” Each etching—printed on vellum in dense black and white—is paired with cantos in Italian and English translation, chronicling Dante’s journey to hell and back. A tale centuries old becomes captivating and contemporary. Through June 2018, SCU’s de Saisset Museum hosts an exhibition of Mazur’s interpretation of the Inferno in its entirety. These are part of the museum’s permanent collection, a gift of Smith Andersen Editions—thanks to the late Paula Z. Kirkeby.