Abjad ابجد
My limited edition Book of Abjad is approaching distribution, but what happened to the 28 original artworks I made as a basis for the book? I have made a special coffret to gather them as a single art piece, somewhere between book and box, but with the option of framing individual pieces as desired. Unlike the book, this coffret is one of a kind.
Materials: Artwork: historical pigment (cinnabar, orpiment, lapis lazuli or lamp black) in gum tempera on watercolour paper. Box: Cardboard lined with wool felt (inside) and bookcloth (outside), acrylic; folder of card, bookcloth and linen thread with brass closure.
Size: Box: 32x32x4 cm. Individual pieces: 28x28 cm each.
Completed: August 2023.
Description: The 28 letters of the Arabic alphabet in their forgotten role as numerals, visualising number through geometric composition, from 1 to 1,000. The colours correspond to their natural qualities (associating them with the four elements) according to one of various traditional systems. The coffret comes with a monograph, “Stories of Abjad”, detailing this system and other historical ways—practical and symbolic—of organising this fertile alphabet.