PROJECT DESCRIPTION

The catalogue for Alia Ali: Project Series 53 presents three bodies of recent work by Yemeni-Bosnian-US artist, Alia Ali. Her work explores themes of diaspora, migration, and identity through the lens of Afro- and Yemeni Futurism. Informed by the artist’s own transnational and multilingual upbringing, these works use visual language to create a new lexicon unfettered from the colonial violence inherent to language.

Using layering, full bleeds, multiple trim sizes, and extreme paper changes, the structure of this book creates a dynamic relationship between image, word, movement, and sequence that is experienced simultaneously. The three works are placed in relationship to one another in a unique binding that joins the back covers through a W-fold. The volumes meet in the middle, turning the axis of the book so that it can be read both left-to-right and right-to-left, embracing the multiplicity of Ali’s work.

On the cover is an array of symbols—a fabricated language created by the artist— that are redrawn and reproduced in a dizzying holofoil on a transparent neon dust jacket. Peering through the jacket, the cover reveals a pixelated glitch from one of Ali’s films, highlighting an in-between moment, a fracture of language, a broken system of codes. Without a doubt these distinct elements cohere into a material experience for the reader where she is invited to enter and teeter on the edge of language and power.

BOOK INFORMATION

Trim Size: 6.25" x 8.5"

Number of Pages: 124

Binding Method: Two saddle stitched booklets joined by aW-fold, wrapped in transparent jacket

Paper: Astrobrights 60t, Cougar 130c, GMUND Transparent 100gsm, and Neenah superfine Eggshell 80t

Typefaces: Akkurat and Graphik

CREDIT INFORMATION

Creative Director: Kimberly Varella

Art Director: Kimberly Varella

Book Designer: Kimberly Varella

Jacket/Cover Designer: Kimberly Varella

Illustrator:

Photographer: Interior: Various; Book documentation: Ian Byers-Gamber

Picture Editor:

Production Director: Eli Pulsinelli

Production Coordinator: David Evans Frantz

Production Artist: Sam Wagner

Other Credits:

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