Un monde palestinien
By: Palestinian artists, edited by Katy Couprie and Antonin Louchard
Publisher: T. Magnier, France, 2001
Format: Hardback, small
A beautiful, but heartbreaking collage from Palestine
Un monde palestinien ("A palestine world") was first published in 2001. It was meant to be a celebration of Palestinian culture, but because of the ongoing genocide in Gaza, it has turned into a beautiful, but heartbreaking reminiscence of all that is now lost.
For those who know Katy Couprie and Antonin Louchard´s earlier works, like Tout un monde, Au jardin or À table!, the layout of this book will feel familiar: Two pictures (or sometimes more), are paired together in fun and suprising ways. Sometimes by having the same motiv portrayed by two different mediums - like the photography and painting of dates on the picture below, sometimes by combining different motives in new ways. I think the picture above, where we see a boy in an orange sweater leaning on a crate on the left page, combined with a picture of crates of oranges on the right page, is a wonderful example. The combination of the two pictures opens for interesting conversations and storytelling. The difference between this book and the other books by Couprie/Louchard is that in this book they have only done the editing, all the pictures are made by Palestinian artists.
Un monde palestinien is in the same format as earlier publications from Couprie/Louchard, which works really well: a book small enough to carry around in your pocket, but large enough to show off the quality of the illustrations. As mentioned, most of the spreads consists of two pictures, but a few are double-spreads.
This book really deserves a positive and uplifting review, but reading it in 2025 is heartbreaking. All the gorgeous pictures of Palestininan culture, portrayed in so many different ways...how much of this is lost now? How many of the artists are still alive? The pictures of food, of hospitality and of the abundance of nature are especially difficult to view, knowing that the Palestinian people are starving now.
A Palestinian mother visited Fabel silent book library. I showed her the book and she started crying. I asked her if she wanted me to move it to a place less visible, out of sight, but she said "no, the world needs it. We need to remember everything that is lost. We need the documentation, and we need it to tell our children about how we grew up".
Un monde Palestinien is read from the right to the left. The names of all contributing artists are listed inside. It is currently out of print, but I really hope the publisher will reprint it. We need it to tell all the stories of Palestine that are of beauty and hospitality and friendship, to remember what it is we are fighting to stop, to avoid a genocide like this ever happening again.
