Before There Were Words
Before There Were Words
2026
Book, paintings, and drawings
Before There Were Words is an ongoing body of work emerging from a pilgrimage through the South of France and developed in dialogue with a book written with my mother, Florence Basso Pietrobon.
Mary Magdalene forms one thread within a broader inquiry into what survives outside official history: ancient and apocryphal texts, oral traditions, pre-Christian beliefs, sacred architecture, feminine spiritual lineages, and knowledge carried through bodies, symbols, ritual, and the land itself.
Moving between personal experience and historical research, the project asks how memory persists before it is written—and what may still be encountered beyond words.
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For painting inquiries, contact studio@jennabassopietrobon.com.