Sternberg Press and artPost21 publish two volumes in “imagine/otherwise” series
“The madness that spun me into Huguette Caland’s art the first time around felt as if falling off a rollercoaster headfirst into a mountain of frosting. Surrendering to the sumptuous curve of pink hues, they gradually began to tessellate forming an orbit, a tender crossing of blue.” —Professor Omar Kholeif, PhD
Lebanese-born artist, Huguette Caland (1931–2019) was a path-breaking figure in late modernism. The only daughter of the first Lebanese president, Bechara Khalil El Khoury, she produced a singular body of work that spanned media and continents. Working for more than five decades, her art is recognized for its embodied aesthetic and its unique sensuality. In this searching critical biography, author and curator, Dr. Omar Kholeif, disentangles the seeming madness, velocity, and the interiority of Caland’s life. Both an epistolary memoir and a biography, Kholeif, interleaves the affective experience of encountering the artist over a period of 18 years, as readers are summoned on a journey through clouds of bristling color. Here, Caland’s fields of light are set to lyric prose and poetry, fashioning a scene for looking at and experiencing the erotics of art anew. The expansive volume, the most extensive publication in the series to date, also includes an afterword by Dr. Brigitte Caland, the artist’s daughter, who since 2005 has served as the manager of the artist’s estate.
Kholeif will be signing advance copies of imagine/otherwise: Huguette Caland as part of the exhibition Finding My Blue Sky at Lisson Gallery, London at 5:30pm on Friday June 6, 2025, at 27 Bell Street. RSVP is essential. Please do so via rsvp@lissongallery.com. You may order copies directly from Sternberg Press here.
Sternberg Press and artPost21 are also pleased to announce the publication of imagine/otherwise: Simone Fattal by Hans Ulrich Obrist, with annotations by Omar Kholeif and an afterword by Rasha Salti.
In this deeply personal biography, Damascus-born artist, Simon Fattal journeys with her close friend and confidante Hans Ulrich Obrist. Together they weave across physical borders and through seats of the imagination. The artist's remarkable early life in Syria, her coming-of-age in Lebanon, as well as her transcultural life in France come to surface. Meanwhile, wartime memory and exile in California sow the seed for discussions regarding archaeology, history, and mythology.
Prose and interviews between Fattal and Obrist are annotated and introduced by Dr. Omar Kholeif, whose essay situates Fattal’s multiple creative journeys. An afterword entitled “Warrior Women Fall From a Low Height” by author, curator and filmmaker Rasha Salti, brims with energy, both in its lyricism and its expressive desire to solder and suture fractious histories.
A Poetry Salon to celebrate the life and work of artist Simone Fattal titled Journeys through the Post-Apollo, curated by imagine/otherwise board member, Sofia Victorino, will unfold in the context of the exhibition, ‘Finding My Blue Sky’, which includes new work by Fattal. Celebrating the artist’s decades of experimental publishing, a series of readings from her work shall take place at Lisson Gallery, 67 Lisson Street on July 5, 2025 at 3pm. Signed copies of the publication shall be available for purchase. Please RSVP with the reference Poetry Salon: Journeys Through the Post-Apollo in the subject line via rsvp@lissongallery.com.
These volumes accompany: imagine/otherwise: Lalitha Lajmi, imagine/otherwise: Magda Stawarska, imagine/otherwise: Sonia Balassanian.
The publication of Helen Khal: Gallery One and Beirut in the 1960s complements the series.
The next title in the series shall be released in spring 2026.
imagine/otherwise is an ongoing research project initiated in the framework of artPost21, a not-for-profit incubator based in the UK. Sternberg Press is the co-founding publisher.
Series design by Simon Josebury, SecMoco, London.
Support for imagine/otherwise: Huguette Caland is provided by: GALLACHER, Barjeel Art Foundation, Maliha Tabari, Tabari Art Space, Sunny Rahbar, The Third Line & those who wish to remain anonymous.
