Salt Crystal – Fabio Parizzi

As you see on the front cover of this issue, one can easily grow one’s own salt crystal at home, using a glass of salted water and a string attached to a pencil. Within few days the evaporation of water induces a shifting of matter from the water to the string as the less energetic way for sodium chloride to reorganise itself.

After discovering the principle of natural salt crystallisation near Salzburg were miners used to offer to tourists dry branches
covered with a shining deposit of crystals, French writer Stendhal in his essay ‘On Love’ (1822) used it as a metaphor to describe the ‘birth of love’ in human relationships.
According to Stendhal, the mental process when one sees flattering illusions in a new love, hiding the unattractive characteristics of this person, is quite similar to the sparkly diamonds covering a leafless piece of wood after the natural crystallisation of the salt.

Exploring the same phenomenon, Fabio Parizzi intended in this book to describe this chemical reaction with 50 sketches.
This visual attempt to understand the basic structure of matter in space and its physical behaviour embracies the fascination of mankind for the primary form of solid structure first described by Plato more than 2.300 years ago.

SALT CRYSTAL
Edited by
Philippe Desarzens

Crystal drawings and tattooed arm
Fabio Parizzi
148,5 / 204 mm, 53 pages
Xerox printed
Book edges printed in black