Joshua Borkovsky: Notebooks #1, #2

The hajj paintings on the front wall of a building distinguish it as the home of hajji, a person who has undertaken the pilgrimage to Mecca and circled the Kaaba seven times. The paintings, executed (or commissioned) by family members in honor of the returning hajji as part of the welcoming ceremony, constitute a singular and intriguing graphic expression of man’s affinity with a (holy) place and with the cycle of ceremonies linked to it.

From the 1970s, for over a decade, Borkovsky documented in photographs this popular genre, which has accumulated and been invested with added meaning in his work over the years, and receives a new spatial setting in this artist’s book. The book includes two volumes and three booklets.