Softcover, 27 × 20 cm, 108 pages
Adrian Paci: The Guardians is a book produced in conjunction with the exhibition by the same name at the Chiostri di Sant'Eustorgio museum complex in Milan. It includes critical essays by Charles Esche and by Gabi Scardi, curator of the show, along with extensive illustrations. Text and photos alike help convey the resonance that Paci's works established with the setting at Sant'Eustorgio. What makes this relationship particularly vibrant is Paci's interest in layered meanings and in the interpretative possibilities of signs and images. Esche's essay examines how Paci's work manages to move past the traditional relationship between art and religion, expressing a concept of universal faith intrinsic to humankind in both the past and present. Scardi emphasizes how his oeuvre is grounded in precision, imaginative sensibility, and a deep familiarity with the art of the past; and how it combines contingency with metaphor, with the observation of social dynamics in our era, and with an awareness of how actions endure through changes in place and time.
