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Anoor Art · Islamic Art

Calligraphy Sculpture

Arabic calligraphy as an object. Bismillah, Alhamdulillah, the Shahada, any of the 99 Names — or your own words — shaped the way a calligrapher joins them, in the flowing Naskh of manuscripts, and made into a thing you can hold: deep letters standing in their own stand, a plate for the wall, or a block with the words engraved into its face so they read in shadow. The letters in one color, 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 an open-licence face: Amiri, the Naskh of made Qur'ans. Nothing is drawn by hand and nothing is drawn wrong; and a person checks every piece before it is made.

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 — with a straight tab along its bottom that drops into its own stand: a low wedge the plate leans back in, the English meaning cut into its sloped front, AnoorAI.com on its back. Two parts, each made flat. Wall: the letters 8 mm deep on the same silhouette, every vowel mark standing on its letter by a short stub, two keyholes behind on the letter bodies, and the Anoor mark small on the back where a stroke is wide enough for it. 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 — with the English meaning cut lightly beneath the Arabic in the same color, and AnoorAI.com cut into the back. A border if you like, set flush into the face in the letters' color: a hairline, the Ottoman rumi scroll, or a tezhip band of palmettes.

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