No Words
Judith Serebrin, USA

     

No Words; Judith Serebrin, Redwood City, California, USA, August 2013 What could I say or show about the loss of a vibrant literary culture in a place I knew little about; in a place that the U.S. - against my will - invaded? The decimated literary culture on Al-Mutanabbi Street is a tragedy, one of the millions of tragedies of the most recent invasion of Iraq; one that stands out in the ongoing procession of calamities of war. I am honoured to pay tribute to the injustices done to the literary world, bookbinders, scribes and to the Iraqi people. The cover is reminiscent of middle-eastern antiquities and what I was feeling while creating the prints was a sense of preciousness and loss. Books are sacred in my culture, as they are in many. What does it mean to obliterate these containers of knowledge, ideas and creativity, and the people that made them and sold them? As it turned out I had more to show than to say - really - I had no words. Dimensions, 149 x 86 x 15 mm (5 x 5/8 x 3 7/8 x 1/2"); Medium, mixed: polymer clay covers with acrylic and wax; ink-based monotype prints on hand-made paper Judith Serebrin has been making limited edition and unique books from prints and drawings since 1989. She has been combining her books with porcelain sculptures since 1994. She appreciates the intimate nature of making, reading and holding books. Her work has been exhibited widely and has been collected by libraries, museums and individuals in the United States and abroad. She received a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Utah in 1990. She lives and works in Redwood City, California, USA. She currently teaches at the San Francisco Center for the Book. serebrin@sbcglobal.net