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A book made entirely by hand
The cover of Sophocles' Antigone.
THERE ARE books and books. First editions, those autographed by the author and of course, pirated versions sold on pavements that benefit neither the author nor publisher.
Books of a different kind are what Tara Publishing comes out with and it has just won an international award.
The Independent Publisher Book Awards 2002, for the ``Best Book Arts Craftsmanship'', has come for Tara's book Sophocles' Antigone, brought out in collaboration with the J.Paul Getty Museum in the U.S.
This unique version of Sophocles' classic play was made entirely by hand in India by a team of screen-printing artists. Gita Wolf and Sirish Rao have written the text.
It was approved by scholars at the museum and then sent to Indrapramit Roy, a contemporary artist on the faculty of painting at the MS University of Baroda.
An art historian, he was able to come with an illustration style based on Greek pottery of the period, rendered in two silkscreen colours.
At the awards ceremony, the Director of Publications of the Getty Trust, Christopher Hudson, said, ``Antigone is a handmade book, with no part of the production process done by machines.
The paper consists of cotton rags and assorted waste paper. The paints are non-toxic screen printing inks, mixed by hand, and the glue used in binding is a water-based resin adhesive.''
The Getty Trust noted that the craftspersons were young men who migrated from rural areas to cities, trained in the art of handmade books and now recognised for their skills. The books were priced competitive with commercial production runs and the award was the first official American recognition of their expertise.
Antigone was a complex production, with 8,000 copies for the Getty in the U.S. and 500 copies for Tara in India. Ten persons worked on the project for over five months.
Each sheet of the book was screen-printed individually, which means that each sheet is an original print. This works out to a total of 250,000 pulls by hand per book! The sheets were dried out in palettes after each colour impression, then composed, stitched and bound. The slipcover is also handmade and had to be folded and glued exactly.
By Satyamurty K.
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