Exhibition: The Typographic Dante

Journey from Hell, through Purgatory, to Paradise with artist Barrie Tullett in an exhibition of works responding to Dante’s Divine Comedy.

Tullett has created 100 typographic illustrations, each of which responds to a Canto of Dante’s unfolding narrative, giving an opportunity to experience the whole journey of the Divine Comedy in one visual experience. Each work was made using a different ‘obsolete’ technology: wood and metal type, a typewriter and letraset.

The Divine Comedy is a poem by Dante Alighieri. Written between 1308 and 1320, it describes Dante’s journey, led by Virgil, through Hell, Purgatory and Paradise, and, at a deeper level, represents the soul’s journey towards God.

Barrie Tullett is Programme Leader for Graphic Design at the University of Lincoln and is the author of Typewriter Art: A Modern Anthology (Laurence King Publishing, 2014).

A set of prints by Brenda Dermody, reinterpreting some of these typographic illustrations, accompanies the works. Dermody is a designer, author and researcher, and is Programme Chair of Visual Communication at the Dublin School of Creative Arts, Technological University Dublin.