The sacrament of scripts: on calligraphy in Islamic art

Hans Ulrich Obrist, the director of international projects at the Serpentine Gallery, contributes a characteristically thought-provoking foreword to this careful analysis of modern Middle Eastern art, Signs of our Times: from Calligraphy to Calligraffiti. Obrists own Instagram project, The Art of Handwriting, was an attempt to counter Umberto Ecos fear that we are losing an art form in the replacement of handwriting by the typed and computerised word, and with it individuality and fluidity of ex