Canto XI/1 As Dante-the-Poet (for both he and Dante-the-Pilgrim are present in the text) is allowed the illumination of hindsight so may the artist share the same license. Dante is one of the great recyclers of his own imagery and his output forms a unity of resonant recapitulation: he is (as most fiercely evidenced by the Convito) his own most detailed commentator. Thus his illustrator can with all the appropriateness rifle his own work for images and enrich the former instances with present use (cf. Cantos 111/3, XXVIII/ 1 etc.). The symbol chosen here to stand for the violent is quoted from a screenprint Emblemes of Violence from a series A Walk to the Studio. It shows holes knocked into pieces of corrugated iron (themselves much recycled) photographed at a local building site. Their resemblance to flared and rusted bullet holes brought back early memories of gangster-films seen as a child with my father, where bursts of gunfire caused such holes to appear spontaneously in doors and walls. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.