Inferno

Alexander Tovborg brings forth the underworld of Dante Alighieri’s iconic Divine Comedy in 37 hallucinatory etchings.

Ever since training as an art student, Dante’s Divine Comedy from 1320 has been a close companion of Alexander Tovborg’s artistic practice. This late-medieval poem is considered one of the world’s greatest works of literature, describing the afterlife as a journey of the soul towards God.
The Comedy is divided into three books: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. Inferno is an explicit rendition of the descent into Hell. Described as a voyage through nine downward circles, Dante himself appears as the main character, accompanied by Virgil, the great poet of ancient Rome.
Tovborg’s portfolio of 37 etchings is inspired by each specific canto (verse) of Inferno. The hallucinatory nature of descending into Hell is expressed in Tovborg’s psychedelic colors, which are reminiscent of a pre-colonial South American colour palette. The ornamental patterns are simple and sincere expressions that reference the stylized figurative language of the Viking Age, Ancient Greece, pre-Roman and the ornamentation of early Danish coins.