This book was published on the occasion of Nathaniel Mary Quinn: Split Face at Museo Novecento and Museo Stefano Bardini in Florence, the artist’s first solo exhibition in Italy. Split Face juxtaposed Quinn’s recent paintings, many of them not previously exhibited, with works by Renaissance artists and twentieth-century masters including Donatello, Luca della Robbia, Felice Casorati, Virgilio Guidi, and Carlo Levi, among others.

The catalogue reproduces all the works in the exhibition alongside installation and studio photography. An essay by the curators, Sergio Risaliti and Stefania Rispoli, details their intention to spark a conversation between “languages, times, and visions” that focused on the human face as “a constellation of possible identities, an inner map that disorients and questions.” An additional essay by Risaliti details the interaction of Quinn’s works with objects from the two museums’ distinctive histories and interiors, as well as with the works in their collections, while a candid interview with Quinn by Rispoli further illuminates the artist’s practice.