Exhibition and a wonderful linguistic journey of 'Aswat al Abjaddyah' or 'The Sounds of the Alphabet', the first in a Dar Onboz series of limited edition artists' books where the book becomes an art piece, from creation to production-stamped woodblocks, letterpress printing, hand binding and wrapping.
Event:
Aswat Al Abjaddyah
The Sounds of the Alphabet'
Aswat al Abjaddyyah_BookCover -
With:
Nadine Touma,
Lara Assouad
Aswat Al Abjaddyah started with a font, Tabati, created by Lara Assouad Khoury, a typographic expression of a story (also titled Tabati) animated by basic shapes-circles, rectangles, squares, triangles and primary colours, out of which sprung a complete constructivist visual language of type and illustration.
Tabati offers an alternative reading of the Arabic alphabet, through the simple underlying geometric shapes or masses it defines rather than the lines it traces on paper.
Aswat Al Abjaddyah - The Sounds of the Alphabet, written by Nadine R.L Touma, came as a natural expression of such an 'animated' and playful typeface, which naturally lent itself to the richness and musicality of the Arabic language. For each letter a sound-verb-'ha', 'hafhaf' for the sound of rubbing leaves, 'zain', 'zaqzaq' for the sound of chirping birds , 'sadd', 'sahsah' for the sound of loud laughter-a play on rhythm and sound repetition.
This book is a tactile, visual, auditory experience to share with the young and old, celebrating the beauty of the written Arabic word and the richness of the Arabic language.