• Literature and Book Arts series,
  Shehrazade: Saving Words

From 2010 to 2011
Teacher Monica Dengo

Literature and Book Arts series, Shehrazade: Saving Words

In November 2010 I was invited by a group of artists from the Veneto area (Italy), who called themselves A Casa d'Irene, to give a workshop and develop a project with them, over several month.

We chose to work with the project Shehrazade: Saving Words.

After discussing the concept and the visual ways to convey it, students created new writings specific for the project and developed a collaborative piece, a book of books that seems to generate other books even as we view it.

The initial visual theme was the contrast between day and night and was explored in many ways, including working black on black and white on white. The dark pages alternate with the white, as night does with day, as words do with silence, as naturally as breathing in and breathing out. From the dence, dark books at the centre, paler books reach out towards the white, unwritten books at the edges, books ready for words that will recount the stories of today and beyond, of men and women who hunger for another life, a destiny different from their own.