Book of Hours is an exhibition project that involves 13 contemporary artists called to collaborate for the creation of a single artifact, or a volume that follows the concept and contents of the medieval and Renaissance book of hours. The work will be visible to the public from 23 to 31 May 2022, on the occasion of the Golden Hours exhibition. Books of hours from the Middle Ages to today at the Palagiano Hall of the Royal Library of Turin.

Unlike a traditional group exhibition, where the works are exhibited in the same space but separately - one painting following the other hanging on the walls or panels, for example - in this case a single point of the space (the object- book) collects the techniques, poetics and reinterpretations of the artists called to participate. The "choral" approach seeks to recall the virtuous and prolific relationship between client and artist and between artist and auctor intellectualis (curator ante litteram) today partially decayed but indispensable for the creation of the work of art in all eras.

Each artist had blank papers available on which he intervened with personal compositional skill, reinterpreting the contents and miniatures of the ancient book of hours; only one card per artist was included in the volume. The contemporary images were born from the comparison with the curator Federica Maria Giallombardo, with the publishing house Hapax (Turin) and with university professors, who provided bibliography, photos of manuscripts and video lessons regarding the topoi of the miniatures and of the original texts. The cards were later bound by the artisan workshop of Bottega Fagnola (Turin) in such a way as to constitute a facade (i.e. two consecutive pages), so that with the book open you can see the work of one artist at a time, underlining the rhythm of time and encouraging the observer to browse. The cover of the volume is simple and linear, in white parchment to avoid a false anachronistic reference to the sumptuous covers of ecclesiastical and noble books. The contemporary volume "dialogues" with the books of hours kept at the Real Library of Turin supported by a lectern belonging to the collection of the Library itself.

The current representations were explained by the curator in the critical text and in the catalog cards included in the proceedings of the conference Marian Transitions and Variations from the Middle Ages to the present day (at the University of Turin from 25 to 27 May 2022) thanks to which the project was accepted among the initiatives of the Royal Library.

The artists involved, among the most successful on the contemporary scene, were selected by the curator according to criteria of stylistic diversification, professional experiences and literary culture: