“Robert Rauschenberg: Thirty-Four Illustrations for Dante’s Inferno, was published in conjunction with the first major retrospective on Rauschenberg’s career since the artist’s death in 2008, this book presents the complete set of 34 drawings, and newly commissioned poetry from Kevin Young and Robin Coste Lewis, each reflecting on a selection of drawings and their corresponding Cantos. Young’s half of the 34 Cantos are titled “The Dark Wood” and Lewis’ are erasures of John Ciardi’s Dante’s translation, titled “Dante Comes to America: 20 January 2017: An Erasure of 17 Cantos from Ciardi’s Inferno, after Robert Rauschenberg.” [. . . ] —Poetry Society of America, (retrieved October 24, 2021)
View the poems and illustrations for Cantos 2 and 23 here. We have featured the illustration for Inferno 2 above.
Relatedly, see the post on Robert Rauschenberg’s 34 Illustrations here.