A Composition for Writing Beyond Writing 
A Mandaic page for Tim Brookes.
For Tim Brookes's book Writing Beyond Writing, a study of endangered and minority scripts, I made the Mandaic composition that opens Chapter Four, "Language Rights, Human Rights."
Instead of setting the script as a line to be read, I treated the page as a field. The letters arrange themselves into something that is read and seen at once, holding text, form, and image in the same breath. Brookes saw in it people, supplication, a cry for deliverance, a plea that echoes the chapter it belongs to.
I have worked with the Endangered Alphabets Project for years. This is what the work is for: to let a script that few can read still speak to anyone who looks.

"He moves beyond the assumption that writing is a linear, parallel and sequential form, and instead sees the page as an entire field for design. His design for Writing Beyond Writing is not only a text but a panorama of elements that suggest letters and words, but also people, statues, supplication, worship, a cry for deliverance."
— Tim Brookes, Endangered Alphabets Project

BOOK DETAILS

title   Writing Beyond Writing
subtitle    Lessons from Endangered alphabets

Written by    Tim Brookes
language    English

Edition    First Edition, 2024

ISBN    978-0988452336 ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​
PUBLISHER    Percentage Possibility Publications 

DATE OF PUBLICATION    23 January 2024

Cover Type    Softcover // Hardcover // Ebook

Paper    80 Gram
Printed in    USA

Pages    163
Dimensions    254mm x 203mm x 13mm​​​​​​​​​​​​​​
AdinkraExpressions // AdlamInnovations // BalineseBrushstrokes // BanglaBrushstrokes // BaybayinHeritage // BeyondWriting // CalligraphicExpressions // CalligraphyChronicles // ChakmaCharacters // ChamScriptCraft // DesigningWords // EgyptianScriptsRevived // EndangeredAlphabetsJourney // EnglishInnovations // GarayGlyphs // GlobalLanguageCollage // HieroglyphicsLegacy // HumanRightsInWriting // IndonesianScriptArt // LanguageDiversity // LepchaLegacy // LinguisticEvolution // MandaicTraditions // MandombeElegance // MarmaMroScripts // MegalacerosInscribed // MotherTongueTales // NdebeleExpressions // NubianHeritage // NsibidiWisdom // OgamHeritage // PahauhHmongArtistry // PallavaElegance // PastPresentFutureScript // PreservingMinorityLanguages // PrasannaSreeExpressions // RunesOfHistory // SamaritanLetters // SilabarioAmazonicoStories // SiddhamTraditions // SudaneseScripts // TifinaghTradition // TimBrookes // VanuatuScriptures // VaiKpoloeCraft​​​​​​​