Ahmed Morsi:
The Printmaking Years
for Gypsum Gallery

Ahmed Morsi (b. 1930) is an Egyptian, New York-based artist, poet, and critic with a multidisciplinary career that spans seven decades. A member of the ‘School of Alexandria’ - a group of artists whose practices developed under the influence of surrealism in the 1940s/ 50s - Morsi’s lyrical and introspective body of work offers a powerful meditation on memory, non-belonging, and the passage of time. 

In 2020 Gypsum Gallery wanted to create a publication showcasing Morsi’s prints. In the 1970s he had developed his printmaking practice as an investigation of form, repetition, and the singularity of copies, resulting in more than 500 prints produced between the 1970s and 1990s. These span silkscreens, lithography, etching, and linocut, and were created at a moment in cultural history in which the medium was at the forefront of art production and thought. [excerpted from Gypsum Gallery]

The publication features a substantial selection of these prints along with texts from Duro Olowu, Sarah Rifky and Amina Diab and is edited by Aleya Hamza and Sara El Adl. Within it we wanted to create a sequence that tells a story and that highlights the themes in Morsi’s work. In his prints we often see fish, horses, human figures, eyes and birds. We wanted to cluster these themes in a compelling way, while creating a narrative that is also somewhat true to the chronology of the creation of these works. Finally, we wanted to play on the idea of repetition, of variations and of singularity and thus create a layout that feels coherent overall, but is rather fluid and varied to keep the reader engaged.

The publication is bilingual, with all texts translated from English into Arabic, and to keep both languages equally prominent we thought of a layout that runs in both directions and is interrupted by lapis blue sections highlighting particular series from Morsi’s work: ‘The Cavafy Suite’ and ‘Stones of Bobello’. The cover features fish scales from one of by Morsi’s prints, embossed onto both sides connecting the Arabic and English ends of the publication to create a relationship/ continuity between the two sides.