Depero, 'Libro imbullonato' (1927), page 21: Mussolini quotation set as a typographic page
A single page of an artist's book: nine lines of text in sans-serif capitals set on a rising diagonal and growing in size, ending in the bold signature word 'MUSSOLINI'. The text calls for a new art 'of our times' beside the heritage of the past. The tell: the leader's words are the only content of the page, placed at the book's centre as an endorsement, with no occasion, date or source printed for the quotation.
- Date
- 1927
- Period
- Interwar
- Made by
- Fortunato Depero, Futurist artist (the 'bolted book' is his own promotional portfolio, published in Milan, 1927); Kingdom of Italy under the Fascist government
- Country
- Fascist Italy
- Medium
- Books and pamphlets
- Issuer type
- Individual
- Regime
- Fascist Italy
- Leader
- Benito Mussolini
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Persuade or win support
- Techniques
- Testimonial
- Leader
- Benito Mussolini
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Wikimedia Commons (own-work photograph by Bartleby08 of the printed book), retrieved October 2, 2026
- Rights
- Book published 1927 (US PD, pre-1931); photo CC BY-SA 4.0 (Bartleby08, Commons)
Fortunato Depero, Libro imbullonato, Milan, 1927; photograph by Bartleby08, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Text on the object
noi non dobbiamo rimanere dei contemplativi non dobbiamo sfruttare il patrimonio del passato noi dobbiamo creare un nuovo patrimonio da porre accanto a quello antico dobbiamo crearci un'arte nuova un'arte dei nostri tempi MUSSOLINI [page number:] 21
we must not remain contemplatives we must not exploit the heritage of the past we must create a new heritage to set beside the ancient one we must create for ourselves a new art an art of our own times MUSSOLINI [page number:] 21
Lower-case type as printed. Translation is a machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader.
