Imperfect Binding
2019
Unbound folio reproducing Jewish Mincha prayer book, offset printing on parchment writing paper, pencil
100 × 50 cm
Commissioned Castello di Rivoli Museo d'Arte Contemporanea

For the past two decades, I have been collecting objects from the departed Jewish community of Iraq. Some of the most interesting items I have in my collection are the prayer books, published by the Great Synagogue of Baghdad, but printed and bound in Livorno, Italy by Salamone Belforte & Co. 

Paying homage to the bookbinding entrepreneur Francesco Federico Cerruti (Genova, 1922 – Turin, 2015), who introduced “perfect binding” to Italy, I commissioned Luciano Fagnola, a master crafts bookbinder and friend of Cerruti’s, to rebind a Hebrew and Arabic-Jewish prayer book printed in 1935. The repaired book now resides in the Cerruti Collection of the Castello di Rivoli Museo d'Arte Contemporanea, and I created an edition of 100 prints of the prayer book’s pages accompanied by text on care and reparation.