Fantastic Fauna (2017)
by Islam Aly
Fantastic Fauna by Islam Aly is a bilingual English and Arabic book based on the tradition of using animal characteristics to display caricatures of humans. Aly is a book artist and lecturer of Design at the Helwan University College of Art Education. His work combines technological methods like laser cutting with traditional techniques and themes. Fantastic Fauna draws from “Kalila and Dimna” by Al Mqufas, a ninth-century collection of animal fables which came to Persia from India. A contemporary equivalent of “Kalila and Dimna” is George Orwell’s Animal Farm; both stories use animals as political allegory. The animals represent social inequality, political oppression, and ideological battles.
The main section of the book is 5 x 8 x 1.78″ with ten sections that contain four folios. Extending from the book using a red leather ribbon are five miniature books sized 1.5 x 1.5 x 0.75.” Each miniature book contains a descriptive word about each animal The engravings of the animals were created using laser-engraved wooden boards. The book was bound using Coptic style binding with red leather wrappings connected to the books. The book is signed and numbered by the artist.
The book displays images from medieval Islamic artwork. “The book offers the reader with a different reality where the words describing the animals are not in the main book but inside the miniature books. The reader will be intrigued to find differences and connections between images and words, animals and human characters” (Islam Aly). On the final page of the book, there is a quotation from George Orwell: “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”