Art Dubai

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Shezad Dawood has worked for many years archiving Ferozson’s book-shop on Mall Road, in Lahore, which until it closed its doors in 2017, was the longest running Urdu-language bookshop and publishing house in the world. With these paintings he attempts to recover lost decades in Pakistan’s history mirrored in the changes in graphic design and iconography over each decade since the country was created in 1947, and how these reflect the changing political situation within and the shifting external perception of the country. Each painting is inspired by a specific cover design, from the 1940s through to the turn of the last century, with their titles suggesting a consonance with contemporary books and cinema from Europe, the US and the wider Middle East. Each is also a celebration of a very particular aesthetic that encompasses both graphic design histories within Pakistan and the artist’s own practice, playing with a colour palette and use of paint that is both painterly and modular. A final note should be made about the scale, as the artist playfully makes each painting double the size of their original paperback inspirations.