Emily Martin
Devils & Evils. Dante's Comedy Revisited: An Unholy Tragedy, 2026
Iowa City, IA
One of thirty copies, signed by the artist.
2698
Square quarto. Eight-panel sculptural tunnel book. Martin's adaptation of Dante's Divina Commedia plays upon the multiple meanings of 'hellmouth,' suggesting that the entrance to infernal Hells is straight through the...
Square quarto. Eight-panel sculptural tunnel book. Martin's adaptation of Dante's Divina Commedia plays upon the multiple meanings of "hellmouth," suggesting that the entrance to infernal Hells is straight through the mouthy, too-talkative jaws of infernal modern monsters. Martin slyly states that she has here referred to a "specific person," whom she has granted the visage of a pig, but all are implicated in the ever-deepening circles of rhetoric. The vortex is not new - certainly it has been going on since Dante's time - but the consequences of jingoist, oppressive, and gluttonous discourse has rapidly reached a global scale. Once opened, the accordion visualizes the immense distance between political hells and the possible earthly paradise; perhaps the viewer may even feel themselves to be the pivot point, caught in a frustrating purgatory. Letterpress-printed using collagraphs and polymer plates, with tinting hand-applied with pastels. Held in cloth-covered tri-fold wrapper with onlaid paper labels. Housed in black dropback box. Martin is clear in her text and colophon that the project began in 2025, immediately after the inauguration of President Trump. Very fine.


