The Night Life of Trees - Handmade Book

By Bhajju Shyam, Durga Bai, and Ramsingh Urveti

The Night Life of Trees is an exquisite silkscreen-printed art book of tree lore from the Gond tribe in central India. Trees are central to the Gond tribal imagination: in addition to the stories that surround them, trees are important in a lived, everyday sense. There is a Gond belief that trees are busy during the day, giving shade and food to humans and animals. It is only during the night that their real spirit emerges. A collection of work by three of the finest living artists of the Gond tribe – traditionally a community of forest dwellers from central India – this quintessential Tara title has gone into several editions and in different languages. This edition comes packaged in a sustainably-produced cotton sleeve.

Tara Books, 16th English-language edition, hardcover (silkscreen-printed on paper), 13 x 9 inches, 40 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.