Canto XXXI: [no title] 1983

Curator: At first glance, this feels like a cipher, a deliberately obscured text. Editor: Indeed. Let's look at this piece by Esq Tom Phillips, entitled "Canto XXXI." It's part of his illustrated version of Dante's Inferno. Curator: Brown and black glyphs, densely packed... it evokes a sense of confinement, perhaps reflecting the circles of hell. Editor: Absolutely. Considering Dante's themes of exile and spiritual struggle, these shapes may symbolize the fragmented self. The artist, Phillips, has explored language and meaning extensively. Curator: Are these fragments building to an unreadable whole, or revealing the broken state of humanity itself? There's a tension between chaos and order here. Editor: I agree. The symbols feel ancient, primal, yet also modern in their abstraction. Ultimately, it's a compelling meditation on human suffering and redemption, filtered through the lens of both Dante and Phillips. Curator: A powerful reflection on the complexities of interpreting narrative through symbolic imagery.