THE ARTIST BOOK

The Artist Book engages with the practice of book-making and its experimentation and growth for artists in South Asia. As the second title in the Art Murmur x Guftgu trilogy, initiated by Offset Projects and Art South Asia Projects, this publication examines how playful, research-led, and collaborative practices have transformed the book into a space for pedagogy, solidarity, and resistance.

Featuring contributions from Karachi LaJamia, Sohrab Hura and Abdul Halik Azeez, the book highlights practices ranging from radical pedagogical models and community archives to diaristic and speculative experiments in form. These diverse voices challenge traditional hierarchies of knowledge and open possibilities for more equitable and plural narratives through print.

Guided by an editorial commitment to expand discourse around publishing in the region, The Artist Book brings together conversations, essays, and artistic interventions to showcase how the book can function as a living, generative practice. Moving beyond the idea of the book as a static object, this publication celebrates its role as a dynamic, accessible, and deeply political medium — one that circulates ideas, holds histories, and imagines futures.

Through these reflections, the book invites readers to consider publishing itself as an act of building community, fostering new solidarities, and envisioning shared worlds.

Art South Asia Project, in collaboration with the Guftgu program by Offset Projects, presents Art Murmur x Guftgu — a talk and publication series offering a critical, multilayered understanding of two decades of artist book-making and art publishing in South Asia. Across its three parts, the series traces the shifts in publishing ecosystems, the emergence of the artist book as a vital artistic practice, and the challenges of reaching global audiences with regionally rooted narratives.