A Folly for Wisdom

30 h x 21 1/2 w in. silkscreen print. Printed by Chris Betambeau at Advance Graphics on Crisbrook handmade paper (285 gsm) in an edition of 75 copies, with 10 artist’s proofs and 13 copies hors de commerce. Twenty-five sets of the prints are presented in portfolios. Phillips received the Frances Williams Memorial Prize in 1983 for hisDante's Inferno.Phillips translated, illustrated with 139 images, designed, and published this project with Talford Press in 1983 in two portfolio volumes (16 ½ h x 12 ½ w in., 432 pp., edition of 185). In the same year, Waddington Graphics published a separate edition of screenprints fromDante’s Inferno. Nine (a symbolic number in theInferno) screenprints were chosen to represent major themes in the work. While each of these images was included in the Talford Press edition, Phillips felt that their self-sufficiency and size made them best-suited to a larger representation (Dante’s Inferno: A Set of Nine Screenprints). According to hiswebsite, Phillips envisioned his illustrations as a visual commentary to Dante's texts, writing in his notebook: "The range of imagery matches Dante in breath encompassing everything from Greek mythology to the Berlin Wall, from scriptural reference to a scene in an abattoir, and from alchemical signs to lavatory graffiti." To that end, the illustrations include early calligraphy, collage, golden section drawings, maps, dragons, doctored photographs, references to other artworks, and computer-generated graphics. This is a signed artist's proof III/X. Fine.…