Rachel Owen

Rachel Owens hauntingly beautiful illustrations for Dantes Inferno take a radically new approach to representing the world of Dantes famous poem. The images combine the artists deep cultural and historical understanding of 'The Divine Comedy' and its artistic legacy with her unique talent for collage and printmaking. These illustrations, casting the viewer as a first-person pilgrim through the underworld, prompt us to rethink Dantes poem through their novel perspective and visual language. Owens work, held in the Bodleian Library and published here for the first time, illustrates the complete cycle of thirty-four cantos of the Inferno with one image per canto. The illustrations are accompanied by essays contextualising Owens work and supplemented by six illustrations intended for the unfinished Purgatorio series. Fiona Whitehouse provides details of the techniques employed by the artist, Peter Hainsworth situates Owens work in the field of modern Dante illustration and David Bowe offers a commentary on the illustrations as gateways to Dantes poem. Jamie McKendrick and Bernard ODonoghues translations of episodes from the 'Inferno' provide complementary artistic interpretations of Dantes poem, while reflections from colleagues and friends commemorate Owens life and work as an artist, scholar and teacher. This stunning collection is an important contribution to both Dante scholarship and illustration.