ARTIST BOOK · 2022

Mare Nostrum / Al Motawaset

A passage across the Mediterranean, told through boats and survivors’ words.

This bilingual Arabic–English book brings together nine accounts from people who survived a Mediterranean crossing. Boat forms drawn from predynastic Egyptian pottery connect the contemporary journey with older ideas of passage and transformation.

Five brass boats can be moved through openings in the pages. The sections shift from light blue to dark and back again, tracing a journey through uncertainty toward the possibility of a new life.

Edition 50 + five proofs
Dimensions Box: 14.5 × 5 × 2.5 in; book: 9 × 4.5 in
Materials Leather, brass, handmade paper, laser-cut Canson paper, silk-screened book cloth, linen thread
Binding Coptic binding