Creation - Handmade Book

By Bhajju Shyam and Gita Wolf 

From a fish waiting to be born, to the beginning of art and the necessity of death, lore from the Gond tribal community in central India abounds in stories of origins, transformations and endings. Celebrated Gond artist Bhajju Shyam gathers together these tales for the first time. By linking the cosmic with the everyday, he expresses the essence of each myth in ten sequential images. This extraordinary visual narrative of cyclical time takes us from the germinal moment to the turnaround point… where death once again transits into renewal. Gita Wolf’s English text recreates the terse wisdom of Bhajju Shyam’s Hindi expressions with great nuance. This handmade silkscreen-printed edition recreates the brilliant conceptual art of the book, with ink, line and paper combining to add depth and texture to every page.

Tara Books, hardcover (silkscreen-printed on paper), 11 x 11 inches, 24 pages.

Tara Books is an award-winning, internationally-recognized independent publishing house made up of a collective of writers, designers and book artisans who favor a non-hierarchical mode of functioning, informed by feminism and other movements for social justice.

Founded in 1994 by Gita Wolf and based in Chennai, India, Tara Books runs its own print shop, employing over 25 bookmaking artisans on a fair-trade basis. Known for their handmade books, they use handmade paper and non-toxic inks to create numbered artists’ books, as well as art prints and unique stationery (we also carry their wonderful Flukebooks!)

They collaborate with a range of writers, artists and designers from lndia and elsewhere, and an integral part of their publishing is a pioneering engagement with the rich diversity of Indian folk and tribal art.