letter arts review 26:3 . Explaining a contemporary Islamic manuscript . An interview with Marina Soria A collborative project celebrating our relationship to trees . An interview with Nicholas Benson

franklin d. roosevelt memorial inscription at four freedoms park . Nicholas Benson $14.50 Letter Arts Review 2 The editor’s letter: Looking at graffiti technique Volume 26 Number 3 Summer 2012 6 Briefly noted: A manuscript by Michael Hughey

10 Anatomy of the Hilya By Elinor Holland

16 An interview with Marina Soria By Christopher Calderhead

36 Treewhispers By Pamela Paulsrud

cover artist 50 Remembering FDR An interview with Nicholas Benson By Christopher Calderhead

Letter Arts Review 26:3 1 Anatomy of the Hilya

Opposite: By Elinor Holland . Introducing the Hilya Sharif, written the first Hilya Sharif. Since that time, Mohamed Zakariya a wonderful composition of traditional text that the Hilya Sharif has become a true classical Red Hilya is a delight to the eyes and a treasure trove of form of art and is a popular text of choice for 37 × 25 inches cultural, historical and technical information. calligraphers in the Muslim world. Gouache and gold The word hilya is from and signifies a The composition chosen by Zakariya is a on prepared paper. description with overtones of a beautiful or widely-used format that can be recognized by its ornamental portrayal. It is actually a form of layout even without knowing the language. The literature, in its own style, that describes a highly form gives it away instantly. He has written the esteemed and honored person. In the history of text in three different Arabic scripts: , there are hilyas that describe , and . The artist cuts each pen prophets, saints (literally “friends of God” in used in the piece from a reed or bamboo. Arabic), or other exemplary characters. In fact, The composition of this hilya is comprised of there are pre-Islamic hilyas from Christian the three calligraphic components: literature that date before the advent of Islam. The upper band of larger text, written in The hilya we are looking at, rendered by Muhaqqaq style , is called the “head Mohamed Zakariya, is a description of the inscription.” As is commonplace for Arabic Prophet of Islam, ibn Abdullah. It is , vowels are included in the writing. formally called the Hilya Sharif, the Noble Hilya. The marks made with a smaller pen around the Illuminated calligraphic versions of the hilya heavier-weight letters are vowels. In Muhaqqaq of the Prophet Muhammad are by far the most we also see some marks in lightweight pen that popular hilyas, and there are several different appear with the vowels, but these are used in this traditional texts used for them. In early Islamic context to balance space and have no linguistic history the texts were memorized and recited, value at all. but by the time the Ottomans reached their The head inscription can be transliterated height as calligraphers, the hilya had developed as Bismillahi Rahmani Raheem, which means into a visual composition of calligraphy and “In the name of God, the All Merciful, the All illumination. Hâfiz Osman, a seventeenth Compassionate.” century calligraphy master, is reported to have The smaller text, in Naskh style lettering, in

10 Letter Arts Review 26:3 An interview with

MARINA SORIA

The work of Marina Soria will be familiar to many was working in my own studio, so teaching was Marina Soria divides readers of Letter Arts Review, as it is regularly too much for me to handle. Some years later, in the work shown in featured in our Annual Juried Issue. Based in 1998, I was called by the typography department this article into three Argentina, she is a prolific lettering artist who at UBA, and they offered me a position as an categories. The symbols continues to experiment with new letterforms associate professor of typography. I accepted even below are used in the and techniques. We interviewed her this past though I was pregnant with my third daughter. captions to indicate the May. The interview was conducted by e-mail. It I set just one condition for accepting their offer: category for each work: has been edited in collaboration with the artist. in the first four-month period I wanted to teach calligraphy. Since the director was desperate to Space / Counterspace christopher calderhead: You had an find a professor, he said yes! I think this was the extensive training in graphic design and very first time that the Foundational Hand was Calligraphy in Blossom education courses before you became a taught at a university in Argentina. calligrapher. How has that earlier training It was a big challenge for me, since I had 150 Textile Art. affected your work as a calligrapher? students in my class. I had to think of many different ways in which to encourage my students marina soria: My first education was in the by doing projects like designing a new logotype. fine arts field (five years of study) and later on in My mind was definitely broadened with the the graphic design field (three years of study). exercise of correcting 150 different projects. I I then became a teacher at the University of would say this was my best training, as the class Buenos Aires (UBA). I will be forever thankful for tried to find as many different solutions as they my experience at the university, because while I could to solve the same problem. was teaching graphic design there I discovered While I was teaching, I worked as a graphic calligraphy. designer for almost 28 years. That taught me the At the university, I started as a teacher in the importance of interpreting my clients’ desires. graphic design department and taught for four years. Later on, I went into the editorial design You once said to me in an e-mail: “Because department for another three years, and after calligraphy is practically unknown in Argentina, that I quit. I had two babies by that time and I my work keeps on developing in order to be able

Letter Arts Review 26:3 17 AN INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATIVE PROJECT COMBINES

PAPERMAKING, LETTERING, DRAWING, & STORYTELLING

IN A CELEBRATION OF OUR RELATIONSHIP TO TREES

Note: The paper rounds By Pamela Paulsrud . Everyone has a tree story. ourselves. These memories of our experiences illustrating this article I’m convinced of it. Do you remember as a child with trees inspire us to renew our sense of are identified as they running to a tree for safe base when playing a wonder. They connect us to one another and were signed (or not) game of tag? Do you remember plucking ruby- deepen our understanding with nature. Many of by the artists. red apples straight off a tree on a crisp fall day? us have discovered that trees listen quite well, Tree forts that felt and some may even speak to those who listen larger than life are closely. Have you spoken to a tree lately? Did you where secrets were ever speculate—if you were a tree—what kind of shared and stories a tree you would be? were created. Many memories of climbing treewhispers a tree with friends—if Treewhispers is an invitation to celebrate and only to see who could share tree stories. It is an evolving international climb the highest— collaboration of handmade paper, art, poetry, and flutter past our minds’ stories relating to trees. It is a gentle awakening eyes. Cascading of the memories. branches provided From professionals to wee ones, participants refuge from a surprise are encouraged to make handmade paper on rain or grateful shade which to share their own tree stories. Through during a high noon my experiences as an artist and teacher, I’ve walk. Dreams were witnessed something magical about the physical woven amid the mist act of making paper. I have found that the process rising from the forest of making paper by hand encourages creativity. floor on a cool morning while rays of light filtered Your hands are wet from the process and you through the branches making you believe in fairy make something—it is something you know, you dust. did it, you have it, and you are amazed! Just as the rings in a tree embody the stories The handmade paper contributions are round of that tree, so too do we carry stories within like tree rings, honoring a tree or the spirit of

36 Letter Arts Review 26:3 REMEMBERING

LETTER ARTS REVIEW

INTERVIEWS NICHOLAS BENSON

Above: A sample stone introduction had been closed or moved elsewhere. Only two carved by Nick Benson By Christopher Calderhead . I recently heard that chronic care hospitals remained, leaving the rest for the clients’ approval. Nicholas Benson was in New York, executing of the island derelict and abandoned. a carved inscription on the Franklin Delano In 1968 New York’s Mayor, John Lindsay, Opposite, above: A detail Roosevelt memorial on Roosevelt Island. Nick formed a commission to rebuild the island and of the lettering on the Benson is a third-generation stonecutter. His create a vibrant mixed-income neighborhood. Roosevelt memorial in grandfather, John Howard Benson, took over the The master plan for the island was created by the Four Freedoms Park, John Stevens shop in Newport, Rhode Island, architect Philip Johnson. Construction began Roosevelt Island, New in 1927. The shop, which was founded in 1705, York. specializes in finely lettered inscriptions. His father, John Everett “Fud” Benson, ran the shop Opposite, below: The from 1956 until he retired in 1993. Nick has been finished inscription. the owner and artistic director of the shop since then. I was intrigued to talk to Nick about the Roosevelt inscription, not only because it would river give an insight into how a large monumental 4 inscription is made, but also because the 5 monument itself has such a long, and rather 3 tortured, history. Roosevelt Island Roosevelt Island lies in the middle of New York City’s East River. For more than a hundred 1. The site of the park years, it was used by the city as a place to 1 and memorial isolate specific groups of people from the rest 2. United Nations 2 east of the population. The island was the site of a 3. Queensboro Bridge penitentiary, a workhouse for the indigent poor, 4. Roosevelt Island Tram an insane asylum, and several hospitals. By the (dotted line) middle of the 1960s, many of these institutions 5. 36th Avenue Bridge

50 Letter Arts Review 26:3