Maurizio Nannucci – Where to Start From
If you’re anything like me and constantly find yourself staring at a blank canvas (or screen, or wall, or life itself) wondering where the hell to begin, this book is worth keeping nearby. It’s not a how-to guide in the traditional sense, which is probably why it works so well.
Nannucci, as those in the know, has spent decades wrestling with questions that artists quietly ask themselves in the middle of the night: What comes before the work? Can starting point ever truly exist? The answers aren’t neat, and thank for that.
My one-line comment on Goodreads was “Visual freedom” – which sounds like lazy shorthand until you sit with this book for a bit. What Nannucci offers isn’t permission to do whatever you want (that’s too easy). It’s something sharper: a framework for thinking about beginnings without being paralysed by them. The text is spare, the images do the heavy lifting, and the whole thing moves with a quiet confidence that most art books lack.
I won’t pretend this is light reading. But it’s also not the kind of book that treats you like you need explaining. There’s an honesty to it – a refusal to oversell the process of creation or wrap it in inspirational bullshit. That alone earns respect.
For anyone working in visual arts, design, or just trying to make sense of their own practice, this sits comfortably on the shelf alongside the books that actually stay relevant.
Five stars, hands down.
Til next time!
e.
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