Covered Issues, 2013

Covered Issues, 2013, Doctored Book Covers, 170 x 125 cm.

In 1956, Morocco regained its independence after over forty years as one of France's colonial protectorates. Meanwhile, in London, the prolific novelist and humorist P.G. Wodehouse was publishing yet another satirical farce: French Leave. I play with these fortuitous associations in Year of Issue (2013), which pairs the date of independence of 18 Middle Eastern countries with books printed the same year.

Presented on an ordinary shelf, this idiosyncratic library is as poignant as it is tongue-in-cheek. For Jordan's independence in 1946, I selected Simone de Beauvoir's All Men Are Mortal, for Libya's in 1951, Alan Wilson Watts' The Wisdom of Insecurity, for Israel's, Graham Greene's The Heart of the Matter, out in 1948.

Covered Issues follows on from Year of Issue, where I probe into the nature of independence, self-governance, and freedom - a question rendered all the more pressing as the Middle East undergoes dramatic changes from Cairo to Damascus. I aim to hammer the point using collage in Covered Issues, doctoring the titles on the book covers as if to free up another layer of meaning. All Men are Mortal becomes Armor, The Heart of the Matter turns into The Art of War.