| Title | Sequence 1 |
| Artist / Creator | Islam Aly |
| Place of Publication | Iowa City, IA |
| Publication Date | 2014 |
| Structure / Binding | Laser cut handmade flax paper, linen thread, laser engraved wooden boards, Greek binding. |
| Dimensions (WxHxD) | 2 x 2 x 3.5 inches. |
| Edition Size | Edition of 20 |
| Signed & Numbered | Signed and numbered |
This book is an exploration of one Arabic letter “Ḍād” (ض), this is a very unique letter in the Arabic language because of it’s extremely unusual sound. Early Arabic grammarians described Arabic as the "language of the ḍād", since the sound was thought to be unique to Arabic.
40 different shapes of letter Ḍād are displayed in the book; each letter is laser-cut on a section of the book, for example, the very early Kufic scripts, the different styles of Arabic calligraphy, as well as multiple forms of fonts.
Artist Bio
Islam Aly received a BA and an MA in Art Education from Helwan University, Egypt. He is currently a doctoral candidate in the College of Education's Art Education program at the University of Iowa. In August 2013 he finished the MFA program at the University of Iowa Center for the Book. His books explore the possibilities of historical bindings in contemporary book art practice. They have appeared in international exhibitions in the United States and abroad, and in private and public collections including the NewYork Public Library, the W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library at the University of Alabama, the National Library of Chile, the University of Iowa Special Collections, and Bibliotheca Alexandrina.