23 Things is the third in a series of architecture-centered prose works that began with The Clifford Chadwick Clifford Collection (2011) and The Moiré Effect (2012).

"Chronicling on-site research commissioned from me by a mysterious Belgian graphic designer, 23 Things is organized around a group of works in the orbit of the Italian architect Carlo Mollino (1905-73), who designed the bulbous and baroque space of the Turin opera house, a set of windowless fantasy interiors in the city that may have functioned primarily as photographic backdrops, and several extreme Alpine structures, including an under-the-Matterhorn chalet for the then fastest man on skis, Leo Gasperl. Comparable perhaps to a Bond villain, Mollino drew simultaneously with both hands, wrote a treatise on downhill skiing, engineered and drove race cars at Le Mans, was a stunt pilot, and the designer of what was until very recently the most expensive piece of furniture ever bought at auction. The more I looked into the Mollino industry, however, the more it developed an unhealthy curiosity about me. And so this book chronicles my descent into the world of “risotto giallo”—a northern Italian variant of the country’s thriller genre, a surprisingly dangerous domain of tyrant art collectors, car and motorcycle chases, and conceptual double-crosses, all presided over by Italian film music and the lush surfaces of mid-century modern furniture."

Lytle Shaw’s books of poetry, prose works and collaborative artwork (with J. Blachly) include Cable Factory 20 (1999), The Lobe (2002), The Chadwick Family Papers: A Brief Public Glimpse (2008), The Clifford Chadwick Clifford Collection (2011), Selected Shipwrecks (2012) and The Moiré Effect (2012).

Warwick Thursdays is the Writing Programme’s weekly literary salon, organized by Writing Programme staff in conjunction with the Masters students and featuring visiting novelists, poets, dramatists, filmmakers, translators, publishers, editors, agents and artists in conversation with Warwick writers.

Talks are open to anyone and free, and, unless otherwise noted, take place in the Writers’ Room in Millburn House on Thursdays from 1.30pm to 2.30pm.

Warwick Thursdays is free and open to the public.