The hospital for wounded angels

This is an artist's book. Starting from the Chapter House entrance to Santa Maria de Alcobaca Abbey (Portugal), The Hospital for Wounded Angels describes a metaphysical journey in present and past time in which the narrator encounters her real and imaginary lovers. The images -- forty of them reproduced in full colour -- are stunning. From the cemetery island of San Michele (Venice) to the Grand Trianon (Versailles), from the Villa Medicae della Petraia (Florence) to the Palazzo Mansi (Lucca, Italy), the journey reveals a lush, romantic world in which the garden becomes, at the end, a symbol for Paradise. Appended to the images the artist has included detailed background documentation on various sites such as Isola Bella, the Garzoni Gardens, Versailles, San Michele, Mantua ... biographical details on Bianca Cappello and Gabriele d'Annunzio ... as well as her thoughts on the underlying symbolism of garden structures and the problems of usage, maintenance and conservation of historic gardens. The book will appeal to the architectural, as well as the artistic communities and may even find an honoured place on the bookshelves of the novice gardener whose romantic world is limited to half a dozen tulips.