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Anoor Art · Islamic Art

Calligraphy Sculpture Perspective

Arabic calligraphy as an object. Bismillah, Alhamdulillah, the Shahada, Eid Mubarak — or your own words — shaped the way a calligrapher joins them, in the flowing Naskh of manuscripts or the square Kufi of stone, and made into a thing you can hold: deep letters standing on a foot, a plate for the wall, or a block with the words engraved into its face so they read in shadow. The letters in one colour, the ground in another.

The lettering. The words are shaped with the same engine typesetters use — every letter takes its initial, medial, final or isolated form, the line runs right to left, the vowel marks sit where they belong — from two open-licence faces: Amiri, the Naskh of printed Qur'ans, and Noto Kufi, the square hand of carved stone. Nothing is drawn by hand and nothing is drawn wrong; and a person checks every piece before it prints.

Three forms. Standing: the letters 15 mm deep on a 3 mm silhouette — the words' own outline grown by a few millimetres, which is what joins every dot and mark into one piece — running into a foot bar 25 mm deep, so it stands on its own. Wall: the letters 8 mm deep on the same silhouette, two keyholes behind. Engraved block: a rounded slab 20 mm thick, the calligraphy cut 12 mm into its face — the enclosed loops are held by the slab behind them, and the letters read in their own shadow.

Sizes. Small 150 mm across, $28. Medium 240 mm, $44. Large 320 mm, $68. The height follows the words.