SUN AND MOON

Ten artists representing six of India’s indigenous folk traditions offer a collective meditation on the sun and the moon.

This one-of-a-kind book, with the art applied by silkscreen onto handmade cotton paper, defies description or even analysis. It is, in one word, gorgeous. The book inspires reverence from the cover, with its sumptuous background of majestic purple complementing art that depicts the union of the sun and the moon seen through a cutout on the cover. Readers will want to dive in and absorb the intricate, vivid art on each page as well as to bask in the words that tell the simple tales of the sun and the moon as they have been handed down in six different tribal and folk traditions, including Gond, Mata-Ni-Pachedi, Madhubani, Meena, Patachitra, and Pithora. Each spread depicts the celestial orbs in a different folk or tribal style. The words are spare but evoke the tales told in the traditions from which the artwork—and artists—derives. But readers will hardly be aware of these details and differences. The saturated colors, the intricate drawings, and the simple yin and yang of the interwoven stories make this a harmonious whole.

Children (and adults) of all ages will be awed and inspired by the power and force of the artwork and majesty of this book, giving due tribute to humanity’s greatest celestial inspirations