In Song

The mystery of life emerging from matter and the first steps of humanity learning to name things find expression in a visionary journey through time that seems to sing the wonder of the cosmos. In Canto (in song) celebrates the moment when everything began, the arrival of the word that generates and shapes the world, the creatures that inhabit it. Starting from Alessandro Sanna’s watercolours, Giusi Quarenghi’s words give a name to everything and – so doing – bear witness to and acknowledge its existence, identify its characteristics and meaning. The word, the authors seem to tell us, is as generative as Creation itself. In the book, there are many white spaces, few words, and colour is mainly used to dazzle and broaden readers’ horizons, using geometric elements to articulate transforming matter. Starry skies, sunrises, sunsets, galaxies, trees and islands emerge this way. Sanna and Quarenghi bring the material world and the sacred dimension together, reminding the reader of the place that humanity came from and how important it is to take responsibility for preserving it. A hymn to the right, and perhaps even more to the duty, to say, to name, to put words and images into song.  

In Canto
by Giusi Quarenghi with illustrations by Alessandro Sanna
Terre di Mezzo, 2023