Orlando’s Library
2021-ongoing, site-specific installation, wall paper, dimensions variable

Orlando’s Library is a large-scale, site-specific installation based on the photo series New Publications edited by Daniela Comani, where I manipulated titles of classic novels, changing the gender of the protagonist on the covers.
For the installation, I photographed bookshelves and digitally placed 202 manipulated covers (in different languages and editions) on the shelves in a kind of trompe-l’oeil. The bookshelves are printed on wallpaper and applied directly to the wall, giving the illusion of depth and space and adding to a hyper realistic effect.

The installation "Orlando's Library" at MAMbo consists of 189 photographs of book covers made by the artist between 2007 and 2023. The covers appear in different languages and editions, and are placed on 8 photographed shelves in a kind of trompe-l'oeil that becomes the antechamber to the museum's actual library.

For the exhibition at Palazzo Ducale in Genoa, Comani has realized Orlando’s Library in a monumental scale, installing 13 photographs in the 13 arches of the loggia of the main floor. Each print is sized at 400 x 305 cm and depicts 52 book covers, with every arch of the loggia appearing to contain a shelf with 4 books.  The monumental scale is based on the viewer’s line of sight: The visitor can only view these works from a 15 meter distance, either below in an atrium or across the arches on one side of the loggia.
 
Installation photos:
Turin: Gianfranco Roselli
Bologna: Ornella De Carlo
Buenos Aires: Marco Mendivil
Pescara: Paolo Dell'Elce