Recently the artists involved in the Afghanistan and Australian Artists Books Project (See Blog Post May 18, 2010) received the exciting news that the books are back from Afghanistan. They are currently in the process of being translated. Although the texts cover a range of topics, it appears many of the women have chosen to tell their own stories.
The images we have received at this stage are small and grainy but offer an intriguing preview of what is to come. It is important to note that all the texts were written by women who, little more than 12 months ago, were completely illiterate. Looking at the detail of the book I submitted (second from top) I am delighted at the visual manner in which the text interacts with the imagery.
Project instigator, coordinator and participating artist Gali Weiss has written a proposal to exhibit the books as part of IMPACT 7, the international printmaking conference to be hosted by Monash University, Melbourne in September, 2011. In addition, an article on the project will be published in IMPRINT, the quarterly journal of the Print Council of Australia, in March 2011. The March issue will focus on community-based printmaking projects and socio-political commentary through printmaking. Read more about the project on Gali Weiss's website HERE.
