Interior Desecration

“Being an illustrator is a fabulous job: to add fantasy to a written text, and to make the interpretation of the feelings hidden in the words immediately clear. In the drawings of Steven Guarnaccia there is also the irony with which he seasons the imagery, “unpacking” what at first glance might seem alien, transforming all the objects into something appealing and familiar” [Michele De Lucchi]

The spirit of the illustrations of Steven Guarnaccia is not didactic and informative – he does not want to show us the world as it is, as in an illustration of an encyclopedia or a medical text. He wants to get beyond reality, to peer into the deeper meaning of things. In this book, Steven takes us into his world with a dizzying array of images, showing us the world as he sees it and narrating the process through thoughts, sketches, ideas and – finally – finished drawings: not an invitation to get lost in the beauty of the illustrations, but to look at the world and illustration in a new way.

The illustrations - created during his long career in which he has collaborated with prestigious international companies including Pentagram, The New York Times, Los Angeles Magazine, Abitare, Domus - are accompanied by texts by Paola Antonelli, Pietro Corraini, Michele De Lucchi, Steven Heller, Julie Lasky and Marta Sironi.