The spirit of the illustrations of Steven Guarnaccia is not didactic and informative – he does not want to show us the world as it is, as in an illustration of an encyclopedia or a medical text. He wants to get beyond reality, to peer into the deeper meaning of things. In this book, Steven takes us into his world with a dizzying array of images, showing us the world as he sees it and narrating the process through thoughts, sketches, ideas and – finally – finished drawings: not an invitation to get lost in the beauty of the illustrations, but to look at the world and illustration in a new way.

The illustrations - created during his long career in which he has collaborated with prestigious international companies including Pentagram, The New York Times, Los Angeles Magazine, Abitare, Domus - are accompanied by texts by Paola Antonelli, Pietro Corraini, Michele De Lucchi, Steven Heller, Julie Lasky and Marta Sironi.