Enoil Gavat

Read the name backwards and the deck signs itself: Enoil Gavat is Tavaglione reversed, Giorgio Tavaglione being the Italian illustrator whose densely worked esoteric decks made his name collectible. The mirror-name is the right introduction to his sensibility, ornament and puzzle together, decks built by a draftsman who loved hiding structure inside decoration. Tavaglione's line is baroque-precise, Italian illustration's engraved tradition carrying esoteric correspondences in the details, and his decks reward the magnifying-glass reading style: borders, glyphs and marginalia all working. The thin record on this particular deck suits its riddling title; his collectors know to buy first and decode later. It suits Tavaglione's following, Italian-deck completists, detail readers who bring a loupe, and collectors amused by a deck that literally reversed its author. Those who want their creator attribution forward-facing have been told exactly where to look, just backwards.