Adelaide Cioni, I see me and you and you and you, 2020

I see me. And you and you and you is conceived as an alphabet book—or a manual—about the body: a multiple body that reveals itself to our gaze through details and fragments. It is the body of a girl and the body of a boy, becoming the body of a woman and of a man; a sexed body, a body that is skin—and skin is made of many colors, shades, and possibilities.

A pocket-sized format, easy to hold for young hands and for curious eyes eager to look at themselves, to explore, and to imagine who they might become.

The illustrations depict parts of the body—the whole body—at all ages and from all backgrounds, but never the face. Just as it happens when we look at ourselves without the aid of a mirror, we see ourselves in fragments and cannot see our own face. The body that Adelaide Cioni presents in this book is a naked body to be observed, because in discovering ourselves, we also discover and come to understand others.