La volupte d'en mourir

La volupte d'en mourir: conte d'Ali ibn Bakkar et de Shams al-Nahar

Sérigraphies du portfolio La volupté d’en mourir, conte de ‘Alî Ben Bakkâr et Shams an-Nahâr, 1992
Original silkscreen print on Arches
vellum paper, 56 x 38 cm

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La volupté d’en mourir, conte de ‘Alî Ben Bakkâr et Shams an-Nahâr silkscreen portfolio, 1992

Original silkscreen prints on Arches vellum paper, 56 x 38 cm each, Edition of 40, 31 pages, produced at Paul Mabboux’s workshop, France Bibliothèque nationale de France

(Réserve des livres rares), Paris Brooke Sewell Permanent Fund,

The British Museum, London

 

“The text was translated from Arabic into French by the Algerian writer and scholar of Arabic literature Jamel Eddine Bencheikh (1930–2005) from three editions (the Bulaq, the Macnaghten or Calcutta II and Mohsen Mahdi or Leiden), offering the most complete version of the tale so far. This story from the tales of The Thousand and One Nights is told by Sheherazade over a period of seventeen nights (153rd to 169th) and is set during the caliphate of Harun al-Rashid (786–809). It concerns the fatal love between a Persian youth known as ‘Alî Ben Bakkâr and the caliph’s favourite concubine Shams an-Nahâr. The tragic story evokes the atmosphere, tension and luxury of the court, while Mahdaoui’s illustrations based on Arabic letter-forms are a remarkably innovative approach to the relationship between text and image. The pages shown here consist of the opening of the story (p. 1), a single ‘calligraphic’ design and a passage from about halfway through (p. 19).”

Venetia Porter

Curator, Islamic and Contemporary

Middle East Collections, The British

Museum

 

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Artist's Book, 31 pages of silkscreen print (40/40). French translation of part of 'The Thousand and One Nights' . The artists illustrates the text with 'calligraphic' designs inspired by Arabic script. Boxed.

1992