Islam Aly
• I will teach two workshops at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts:
- Stiff-Leaf Binding and Variations, Saturday, August 8, 2026, 10:00 AM 4:00 PM
- Historical Ethiopian Binding, Saturday and August 15, 16 2026, 10:00 AM 4:00 P
Registration is through the MCBA website.
• I'll be part of Beyond the Book: Ethiopian Books: A Presentation and Curated Showcase
This event is in collaboration with the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library and the Minnesota Center for Book Arts, Saturday, August 15, 2026, 9:00 AM 10:00 AM, Open Book Performance Hall, Minnesota Center for Book Arts.
Free & Open to all, Registration is through MCBA website.with
•I exhibited my work at Codex X
February 7-10, 2026, Table W12, Oakland Marriott City Center, featuring selected works, both new and old.
• My work "Kinship" was selected for the Group Exhibition: "Bookness", Kala Art Institute, in collaboration with The CODEX Foundation, Berkley, California.
November 22, 2025 — February 11, 2026
Reception at Kala Gallery during CODEX: Sunday, Feb 8, 6:30 - 8:30 pm
• My book Sacred Meanings is in the exhibition Shape of Thought: The Book as Art, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
Oct. 3, 2025 - June 30, 2026
• Honored to have been selected as an artist-in-residence through the El Anatsui Visiting Artist Fellowship for Africa-Based Artists. The fellowship took place at the Brandywine Workshop and Archives, Philadelphia, USA.
• I had a Solo exhibition and artist talk at Gould Library, Carleton College, titled "Tales, Talismans, and Time Travel: Artist's Books by Islam Aly".
• My book Cryptic Magic is in the exhibition "Paper Engineering in Art, Science, and Education" curated by Giselle Simón, Damien Ihrig, & Elizabeth Yale, University of Iowa Libraries, Iowa City
• I taught two workshops at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts:
- Exploring Arabic Typography with Wood Type, Plates, and Letterpress, June, 2025,
- Stiff-Leaf Binding and Variations, June, 2025, 10:
• I gave an artist talk titled: Material, Structure, and Narrative in Artists' Books
Thursday, June 26, 2025, 6:30 PM -7:30 PM, Minnesota Center for Book, Minneapolis, MN
Free & Open to all, Registration is highly encouraged through MCBA website.
• Honored to have two of my books, "The Square ," and "Marginalia VI" included in the exhibition "10 × 10 for 10: Ten years of Letterform Archive. One hundred objects of typographic design". The exhibition runs from April 26 – October 12, 2025, at The Letterform Archive, San Francisco, CA
• I exhibited at Crossing the Line: The Passport Re-Imagined, Curated by Catherine Alice Michaelis and Cynthia Sears, San Francisco Center for the Book, San Francisco, CA, April 19- June 15, 2025
• I participated in Tropic Bound, Miami’s international, biennial Artists’ Book Fair, Miami Design District, Miami, Florida, February 6-9, 2025
• I participated in the Tokyo Art Book Fair, Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, November 28- December 1, 2024. Thanks to Culture Resource for the travel support through the Wijhat program.
• Honored to have my book,"Marginalia 1," included in the exhibition "Language, Decipherment, And Translation - From then to Now," curated by Deirdre E. Lawrence. The exhibition runs from February 29 to May 11, 2024, at The Grolier Club in New York.
• My book "Enigmatic Talismans" is in the exhibition: Making the Book, Past and Present, Curated by Eric Ensley and Emily Martin, January 17 – June 28, 2024, The University of Iowa, Main Library Gallery, Iowa City, Iowa
• The Square was featured in the Letterform Archive exhibition and publication Strikethrough: Typographic Messages of Protest on View July 23, 2022–April 16, 2023
• Two of my books are in a show at Baylor University libraries. “What is a book?” curated by Sha Towers, Moody & Jones Libraries, Baylor University, Waco, Texas, December 2022.