Edition: 5
Created: 2019
Size: 5″ x 5″ x .25″
Price/Availability: $500 (SOLD OUT)
The Heart Longs is an interpretation of my experiences growing up as a Muslim girl in India. To escape Mumbai during summer, my family spent most of our summer vacations visiting hundreds of mosques that were full of intricate Islamic tiles of bright and vivid colors. Entry to these tranquil mosques required women to be covered by the burqa with our sight obscured and bodies hidden.
The book has interleaving pages, the left side of the book’s interleaving pages comprise of interlaced symmetrical patterns featuring the Islamic 8-pointed star and the opposite side features the ghazal (sonnet) “Dil Dhadakne Ka Sabab Yaad Aaya” by the late Pakistani poet Nazir Kazmi.
There are three representations of the ghazal – one in the original Urdu, the second in Hinglish and the third in English. Hinglish is a relatively new phenomenon used by the South Asian population where Hindi/Urdu words are written using the English alphabet. The English and Hinglish versions are interpretations made by Insiya Dhatt
The book is bound using Claire Van Vliet’s French Door woven strip binding. The Urdu poem uses the typeface Pak Nastaleeq Regular 12 pt. The Hinglish and English use the typeface Lato Regular 12 pt. The text is digitally printed on Aspire Petallics Beargrass Text.
The cover is made with Stardream Metallic Cover.
The book’s structure is to simulate that experience of being restricted and yet at the same time exposed to such wondrous beauty. The ghazal I chose, essentially a poem expressing longing for a time (or person) that was no longer part of the present, mirrors the feelings I have towards the life I left behind. These memories are bittersweet and warm but are always interleaved with the pain of being hidden and lesser as a woman.