Cantos: The Rings of Hell and Heaven

With a background in sculpture, drawing and design, any number of lines on NY-based artist Anne Fischer’s CV are worth a closer look. Her “Cantos: The Rings of Hell and Heaven collection”, for example, is a supreme example of wearable art. It’s a collection of the hand-carved and hand-cast rings in sterling silver and gold. An ongoing series initially started in 2001, the Cantos collection is inspired by Dante Alighieri’s epic 14th century poem the “Divine Comedy.” Drawing on the strict structure of the poem—which moves purposefully from one encounter to the next, building off each as Dante travels through the three realms of the dead—the rings aim to translate this into sculptural objects that evolve from each other to tell a greater story.