Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Libya 2006


That is a picture of the ancient Greek and Roman ruins of Libya, from a distance. It is hard to imagine that once upon a time here in this dry desert was a thriving enterprise and an empire teeming with activity, drama, and culture just a few thousand years ago. Perhaps now it is all left completely to our imagination especially after the recent civil war and bombings. Without these landmarks, these fossils, who will remember? Unless one bothers to pick up a book, or look through some photographs, it is as if nothing happened. All turned into dust.


These film photographs were taken in 2006 by my husband Francesco. Back then he had the lucky opportunity to visit (it was never so easy for foreigners to visit Libya under Geddafi). At the time he was so inspired by his experience that he immediately wrote a book, very personal and he was about to publish it but unfortunately one of the real-life characters involved in the book did not approve of it and it had to go hidden until the recent war broke out and a sudden desire to release this work made him rewrite the whole book and publish it this year. I used some of his pictures from the actual trip to create the cover for Libya 2006: Viaggio a tre voci (A Trip in 3 Voices). Here is the design I came up with, my imagination of what Libya feels like.


The publisher has a fixed format for their books so I didn't have to design the title and text but here is how it looks printed.


It is in Italian and Francesco has some copies if anyone is interested in purchasing. Do you think its a good idea to try and make it available for purchase online?

Friday, March 9, 2012

Librare Part 2


Here are a few more images from Stefania's laboratory Librare. The drawers of metal things are actually drawers of metal fonts. I remember there are several on just Bodoni. This is old school printing press stuff, she even has Gutenberg-ish wood blocks (possibly inherited from her father) and a paper chopping machine from the 50s that still works today (chops up to 10cm thick paper and thats how you get even sides on books).

Monday, March 5, 2012

Muse: Librare



This week we have the tall and magnificent Stefania of Librare whom I've known for some time, admired from afar. Shes monolithic (taller than me or my tall hub) yet approachable with a quirky yet sophisticated style. Its my first attempt at an interview (my Italian still needs a LOT of work) but trying to film these encounters has been fun so far..

More vignettes to follow in the coming days.. Wish you a good week ahead!

Friday, February 24, 2012

I Misteri della Jungla Nera


The Mysteries of the Black Jungle. A book I found some time ago that propelled me back to the tropics as I leafed through its pages with vivid illustrations, colours so familiar I can feel my skin sweat, remembering the chorus of frogs, crickets, mantras.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Muse: Smallest Forest


I met her only once, in Manila - call it a chance encounter through a friend of a dear friend who happened to be into art and all that good stuff. and she, Natalie or Smallest Forest, revealed herself and blew my mind with the wildest things I could dream of. But really, before I even saw her work, she made me laugh so hard I could've choked on my own spit. Sharp, witty, unpretentious, fierce, wild and natural. I immediately felt a deep respect and kinship.

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Segreti di Fiaba (Secrets of Fairytales)


It was a lucky chance for us to stop by Cagliari and meet Fra's friend Francesca Amat, here setting up her art for the biggest children's book festival in Italy. What a brilliant idea she came up with -- other than revealing the secrets behind some of the old fairytales of the world, she created these "books" with a hole cut in the middle, revealing part of the image inside - deceptively resembling something completely different from the image inside. I love it! I think kids will totally love it! and what a way to get kids to read a bit more eh? remember all those books back in gradeschool and the characters that would frequent your dreams? ahh good times..

the secret of the language of animals
the secret, the key and the prohibition of the dragon king
the secret of the birth of elves
the secret of the firebird
Francesca Amat

Thursday, April 21, 2011

The Blind Assassin



I had to double check the spelling for assassin, I wasn't convinced there were 2 double "SS"s. But anyway, the book The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood is my latest and last read. I'm pretty proud of this feat after the growing stack of books with all sorts of paper, bookmark stickings - at least one can finally be released from the folding and inserting and be among the stuff I can pass on to whoever else.