Rathna Ramanathan I

 

Christian Morgenstern's 1905 'In the Land of Punctuation' was re-interpreted and published in 2017 by Tara Books with graphic design and typography by Rathna Ramanathan.  Christian Morgenstern’s poem is a darkly comic dadaist piece. The text has unmistakable political undertones suggesting manacing, authoritarian systems of control. Its graphic representation through typography by Rathna Ramanathan has a very similar visual language to Russian Constructivism of the early 20th Century. 

"Writing is a visual image. In order for us to read sometimes, we don’t react to writing as a visual image because we’re taking in the content. There’s a sort of hierarchy that’s contained there where you ignore how something looks — unless you’re a designer and you refuse to buy something because the typography’s really bad!" Rathna Ramanathan

                         

Tara Books in Edinburgh

On Monday night, I had the pleasure of attending a presentation by Tara books at the Nomads Tent Edinburgh. I have seen them at Bologna several times and I have bought their books over the years and featured them here.
However I was unaware of the true story behind this incredibly successful small publisher and it was great to hear about the other projects that they are involved in.

I didn't realise that all of their books are hand printed and hand bound.

Or how they take the now vulnerable and transient traditions of tribal storytelling and art and fix it in book form like pressing flowers trying to capture this beauty, skill and storytelling. There are some wonderful videos here where you can learn more about Tara Books, their projects and artists.

(above) Gond art by Bhajju Shyam.

Mansingh Vyam

This illustration, 'Baby Birds', is by Mansingh Vyam a Gond tribal artist and illustrator for Tara Books an independant book pulisher based in Chenni, South India offering rare voices and eyes in storytelling and illustration.