DOUBLE MEANING 4. THE INK AND THE COLOR

The Giuliano Briganti Library and Photo Archive renews its appointment with the biennial DOUBLE SENSE, the artists' books group exhibition now in its 4th edition, titled INK AND COLOR, characterized by the customary play of exchange and interweaving between painterly expression and narrative expression, as already tried in previous editions.

In this edition of DOUBLE SENSE we enter the fascinating, and deserving of exploration, world of those artists known as painters but much less as poets and writers: Giorgio de Chirico, Toti Scialoja, Filippo de Pisis, Marc Chagall, Paul Klee, Pablo Picasso, Alberto Savinio, Vincent Van Gogh, Suzanne Valadon, and many others have written stories, treatises, diaries or poems. History also speaks of great writers who devoted themselves to painting activities, such as the Polish poet Wislawa Szymborska, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, also known for her illustrations and her singular collages.

The 37 artists participating in the exhibition project were therefore invited to trace one of these texts, or even just a sentence contained in them, and then translate the emotions aroused into mark and color on the pages of their artist's book.

The exhibition INK AND COLOR, as in previous editions of DOUBLE SENSE, got underway in November 2025, in the exhibition spaces of Libri Liberi-Associazione Culturale Vittorio Rossi in Florence, a place combining a bookshop, café and small theatre, having become a point of reference for scholars and artists, also through the publishing house Libri Liberi Editore, to which the realization of the exhibition catalogue is owed.

Previous editions:
2018: THE FOUND BOOK (Libri Liberi, Florence – Bancarella Prize, Pontremoli, Massa Carrara - Tour de Babel gallery, Paris); 2019-2023: ITALO CALVINO. Artist's annotated bibliography (Libri Liberi, Florence – Santa Maria della Scala-Biblioteca Giuliano and Giuliano Briganti Photographic Archive, Siena); 2024: HERMANN HESSE. The Magician's Childhood (Libri Liberi, Florence-Museum Hermann Hesse, Lugano)

The artists

SANDRO ASATIANI (Nikoloz Baratashvili), FRANCESCA BAGNOLI (Louise Bourgeois), ALESSANDRO BALDANZI (Hans Bellmer), BEATRICE BARTOLOZZI (Toti Scialoja), COSTANZA BERTI (Osvaldo Licini), MARIA CHIARA CECCONI (Kathe Kollwitz), NICOLA CIVININI (Alberto Savinio), LIDO CONTEMORI (Alberto Savinio), PAOLO DELLA BELLA (Dino Buzzati), CARLO DI GREGORIO (Edward Carey), LAURA FELICI (Etel Adnan), SILVIA FOSSATI (Salvador Dalì), ALDO FRANGIONI & DOROTEA DOLCE (William Blake), ENRICO GUERRINI (Paul Klee), REBECCA HAYWORD (Hilma af Klint), MERI IACCHI (Louise Bourgeois), ANTONELLA IACOPOZZI (Carlo Levi), CARLA LATINO (Carlo Carrà), CLAUDIA LEPORATTI (Filippo De Pisis/Giovanni Pascoli), MARLÈNE MANGOLD (Toti Scaloja), MONICA MICHELOTTI (Pablo Picasso), BARBARA NOCI (Maria Lai), MARCELLO PAOLI (Edvard Munch), SUSANNA PELLEGRINI (Fausto Melotti), ANTONELLA PIERACCINI (Wislawa Szymborska), DONATELLA PIERACCINI (Toti Scialoja), LAURA POLI (Paul Klee), PAOLA SARDONE (Carlo Levi), ANNA SONCINI (Salvador Dalì), GIOVANNA SPARAPANI (Paul Klee), MARGOT FEROLLA (Vincent Van Gogh), GUIDO LEONI (Giorgio De Chirico), PIETRO MESSINA (Henri Matisse), FRANCESCA SENZANI (Marc Chagall), CLAUDIA TRIPODI (Claudia Tripodi/Cecco Angiolieri), ISABELLA VEZZANI (Pierre Soulages), SIMONETTA ZANUCCOLI (Suzanne Valadon)

Guided tour

Saturday 18 March at 4:30 PM
Artists' Talk
An exclusive opportunity to view and browse together the artists' books of DOPPIO SENSO with the curators and some of the artists on display, to discover the sources of inspiration and the great masters of the past who guided their research. The artists' direct accounts offer the chance to reveal and understand the creative process behind a book conceived as a true art object, whose value lies not only in beauty and aesthetic research but also in the layering of multiple meanings.
Info and reservations:
Free visit
Limited places (max 25 participants)
Reservation required: segreteria@santamariadellascala.com