"City Gates"_ Book cover

Design Concept

Dislocation, Melancholy and Mysticism. Elias Khoury’s “City Gates” is written on the basis of these themes. The peculiarity of this fable lies in its fragmented and dream-like quality. Khoury moves away from the typical conventions of story telling and attempts to represent the post civil war traumatized state of the Lebanese citizens. He surprisingly does so without even having to mention any reference to it.

This particular theme enchanted me and thus inspired my interpretation of the narrative. My design concept revolves around the various formulations of a single continuous line. This line transforms throughout the pages according to the intensity of the event taking place at particular moments. It also takes the shape of actual settings or subjects present in those moments, all in an abstract matter. As for the treatment of the text, it is either in harmony or discord with these lines also depending upon the situation taking place and the progression of the narrative.