The four elements – water, earth, fire/light and air – were, for many ancient doctrines, the constituents of matter and explained the behaviour of the world, to which is added the fifth Aristotelian element: quintessence or ether or vacuum. Each element has its own laws and each one exists in different proportions within the other. They are added, mixed, creating the universe, a system that is defined by its variety and heterogeneity.

The artist Cris Bartual has collected evocative and tangible manifestations of the elements, creating a compendium of natural phenomena and matter, presented here in an edition that restores their dynamism and complementarity.

156 pages, 14.5 x 21cm, wire-o bound, Handshake (Valencia) x DITO Publishing (Rome).