Limited books available now

$120.00

Elyanna Banes Sanchez is a New York based poet, model, multidisciplinary artist.

Parallel To You ‘Words and Images’ is her first self-published poetry book that blends poetry, visual art, and design to explore transformation, sexuality, identity and human flaw.

Consisting of poetry written across a span of 15 years, her debut 235 page hard-cover book is comprised of several versions of herself— poetry thoughtfully selected from 8 separate notebooks, new and old documents, personal online files and late night notes app confessions, along with photos of hand-made “wearable poetry” pieces: clothing Elyanna designed, hand-made and sewn herself, wrote, carved and painted poems on, as well as self-shot her childhood home. Each piece mirrors the emotional landscape of the poem it carries. 

Each poem is hidden in plain sight within each photo, For instance, upon one piece, the front of the pants are draped with white thread that form arrows that point towards the back, representing the visual pointing towards a poem about fading dreams, carved into wax-coated pants whose text naturally wears away over time while worn. Upon another, the poem written on a top cannot be read unless the fabric is worn and pressed and pushed upon to read the layer beneath it, hence the requirement for communication, trust and intimacy. The visual elements deepen the thematic arc of the collection and create a multi-sensory experience for the reader through literal body language. 

This collection examines the contradictions we live within— desire and avoidance, beauty and distortion, fear and vulnerability and the ways we learn to hold both at once, rooting itself in survival, the preservation of youth, failure, desperation, love and finally, acceptance of the self and the past.

The measurements of the book are 8.1" × 10.2" and is binded with sewing binding.