In the project Closer than your jugular vein (Q 50:16) I traverse worldly, interworldly and otherworldly book qualities of the Qur’an. My artistic considerations unfold within a scribal practice. Arabic handwriting, lettering, and drawing become means of holding space connected to the divine. As the specific qualities of the Book transcend the idea of two covers and linearly fixed pages, I look at the possibilities of mobile pages, a play with different reading directions, folds, layers, cut-outs, and pop-up elements.
I choose to reflect on sacred bookness through the different sites where “the Book from heaven” calls its reader: the Book within the book, recited or written, the Book imprinted on our souls, and the Book expressed in nature. The question “where” – which leads to “how” and “when” – does the Book unfold, helps me to better understand some of its essence amidst its multitude of manifestations, meanings, and messages. To approach the Book’s infinite nature and perpetual renewal, is perhaps to begin from heart to heart, breath to breath, leaf to leaf, letter to letter.