Katabasis by R. F. Kuang

Canvas cover that has been treated with a protective spray. Foiled vinyl detailing.

The cover and end pages features public domain art from artist Gustave Doré. This art is graphic and I ask that you please keep this in mind. There are depictions of death and what appears to be death of a child on the back cover. Below is an excerpt that describes the inspiration for this art.

Purchase ONLY if you are ok with the nature of the art as I do not accept returns for handmade products.

There is only ONE copy of the Deluxe Edition with the sewn head and tail bands and sprayed edges. Once that is gone, it is highly unlikely I will be doing another one.

You can order a standard edition that will come with manufactured head and tail bands and plain edges.

At the top of a hill, strewn with bodies, there stands a sphinx, a mythical monster with the body of a lion and the head of a human. In the distance, plumes of smoke rise up from a Paris set ablaze by enemy cannon. Under the dark sky, a winged woman, perhaps the embodiment of France seems to be asking the sphinx for answers. The sphinx appears to be compassionate, closer to the sphinx of Egyptian religion, guardian of the underworld, rather than the monster Oedipus came across in Greek mythology.
Through this image of the war of 1870, Doré returns to the apocalyptic visions of his illustrations for Dante's Inferno (1861). More than just the defeat, he clearly wished to represent the end of the world. According to the catalogue for the sale of the artist's studio in 1885, Doré had taken inspiration for his painting from two verses of a poem by Victor Hugo:
"Ode to the Arc de Triomphe" (Inner Voices, 1837):
"What a spectacle! Thus dies everything that man creates!
A past such as this is a deep abyss for the soul!"