Little Marco embarks on a real “journey of wonders” on Christmas night when, in defiance of the most obvious prohibition, he ventures alone into the snowy countryside, where a storm of shapes and colours will take him through a series of bizarre, tender or frightening encounters. Immortalised by the artist Julian Schnabel in enigmatic portraits and hazy visions, the Snow characters range from the Idiot, who hates to think but loves to play cards, to the Platypus, which no one ever sees but which leaves plenty of traces, and the Snowman, whose Polaroid “holy card” in Marco’s pocket protects him in his wanderings until he reappears at sunrise in the armoured guise of a medieval warrior.

Dario Voltolini skilfully alternates between narrative and figurative registers, punctuated by Schnabel’s otherwise hermetic images. The writer combines these with a fantastic dictionary of objects, music, environments, concepts and emotions that draw bibliophiles and beginners alike into the dreamlike adventure of reading.

Julian Schnabel, born in New York in 1951, completed his studies there, where he attended the Whitney Museum’s Independent Study Program from 1973. In 1976 he made his first trip to Europe, where he became fascinated by the masterpieces of Giotto, Duccio da Boninsegna and Caravaggio. On a second European trip, the use of majolica in Antoni Gaudí’s Barcelona architecture fascinated him so much that he decided to cover the entire surface of his canvases with a collage of broken plates. In his word he has not, however, neglected more traditional techniques, such as painting on canvas or board, although he is strongly characterised by the use of unusual materials as supports, such as velvet, theatre backdrops, waxed tarpaulins. His figurative repertoire is equally vast, ranging from large texts to portraits in an expressionist key, from the elaboration of religious symbols pertaining to different cultures to the literal quotation of famous paintings.

Dario Voltolini, born in 1959 in Turin where he graduated in Philosophy of Language, is known to the general public for Una intuizione metropolitana, (Bollati Boringhieri), Rincorse (Einaudi) and for his recent book published by Feltrinelli, Forme d’onda. He has written two radio plays for Radio3 and Radio2, the texts by Mosorrofa o dell’ottimismo, Città, Macchinario, Capelas Iperfeitas for the musician Nicola Campogrande and regularly holds creative writing courses at the Scuola Holden in Turin. Here he makes his confident debut in children’s literature, guiding them through the mysterious jungle of Julian Schnabel’s works.

This monographic volume is devoted to the artist’s watercolour production. Introduced by an essay by Sergio Risaliti, who is also the editor, the catalogue includes twenty-seven colour plates reproducing some of the artist’s large watercolours.

The book is the catalogue of the solo exhibition that the Galleria Civica d’Arte Contemporanea of Trento dedicated to the work of the Turinese artist Marco Gastini from 22 January to 13 March 1993. Besides the rich iconographic apparatus, the volume opens with a critical essay by Danilo Eccher, followed by a contribution by Francesco Poli and texts by Lisa Parola, one of which is dedicated to the artist’s most recent works at the time. Parola is also responsible for the extensive biographical and bibliographical notes that closes the catalogue.

This book forms the catalogue of the group exhibition of the same name, curated by Dede Auregli, held at the Villa delle Rose in Bologna from 24 January to 11 April 1993. The group exhibition, with works by international artists such as Massimo Barzagli, Thomas Bernstein, Vittorio Corsini, Thomas Grünfeld, Vincent Shine, Wastijn & Deschuymer and Craig Wood, reflects on the theme of nature and landscape, on its logical representation and on the multiple directions of meaning that this theme suggests to the sensitivity of contemporary artists. In addition to an introductory text by the curator, the volume includes an essay by Stefano Zecchi.

The book, like Giulio Paolini’s works themselves, is coherently suspended between the visible and the invisible, the defined and the unresolved. Once again the artist looks at the riddle of his work as a participatory author and critic, in a dynamic progress, preserving intact the attitudes of wonder through which he fascinates the spectator with whom he identifies. In his book, the artist uses seven rooms – as many places of refraction, reference and accumulation, where anything can happen – to allow or suggest to the reader, who is mirrored in the work, the activation of an exchange of role and experience, to explore what happens outside and inside himself. The book features the photographic collaboration of Paolo Mussat Sartor.

Written by an avant-garde musician, this book confirms the typical critical attitude of the musical avant-garde towards classical theories. But it must be immediately said that the book does not deal with Theory of Harmony but only with Harmony. It is about the concept that in the field of music theory and didactics is used as an implicit foundation for so many behaviours and precepts. In these pages we do not analyse the musical mechanisms but the conceptual mechanisms. It examines whether the preceptual discourse in music is meaningful or not, and what contradictions and consequences it entails. The essay, written in the form of thoughts, phrases, aphorisms, often crosses over into existential fields and is undoubtedly the testimony of a situation into which we are ourselves drawn.