Rick Black, book artist and poet,
in conversation with Professor Gary A. Rendsburg

Yehuda Amichai, one of the great modern Hebrew poets, wrote about love, war, Jewish life in the twentieth century, and the modern Israeli landscape. Award-winning book artist and poet Rick Black has created an exquisite limited edition artist book featuring eighteen of Amichai’s poems. Presented both in Hebrew and English translation, each poem is wrapped and folded in an individual, handmade paper triptych and collected in an enclosure resembling a Jerusalem window. Opening each triptych is a discovery of the unique world of the poem. The work incorporates replicas of some of Amichai’s original, handwritten poems as well as collaged images of Jewish history and life that were culled from archives around the world.
Black worked with Rutgers Jewish studies professors Gary A. Rendsburg and Azzan Yadin-Israel, to translate Amichai’s poems from the original Hebrew into English. Black began the ten-year project in 2007, seven years after Amichai’s death, with the support of Hana Amichai, the poet’s widow. The artist book was issued in a limited edition of eighteen copies. Both the Library of Congress and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum purchased the book for their permanent collections.

This event will be held virtually through Zoom. Advance registration required.

For more information about the project as well as registration visit https://bildnercenter.rutgers.edu/events/upcoming-events/range.listevents/-