The Illegible Book

The Illegible BookCourse Code: 26SAT000V This four week, virtual workshop takes place on Zoom on Mondays, March 30th April 20th, from 10AM to 12PM ET Monday, March 30th, from 10AM to 12PM ET Monday, April 6th, from 10AM to 12PM ET Monday, April 13th, from 10AM to 12PM ET Monday, April 20th, from 10AM to 12PM ET Please Note: Registration for this workshop closes on March 16th, at 11: 59pm Eastern Time. About the Workshop: In this virtual workshop for all experience

Course Code: 26SAT000V

This four-week, virtual workshop takes place on Zoom on Mondays, March 30th - April 20th, from 10AM to 12PM ET

• Monday, March 30th, from 10AM to 12PM ET
• Monday, April 6th, from 10AM to 12PM ET
• Monday, April 13th, from 10AM to 12PM ET

• Monday, April 20th, from 10AM to 12PM ET

Please Note: Registration for this workshop closes on March 16th, at 11:59pm Eastern Time.

About the Workshop:

In this virtual workshop for all experience levels, Instructor Shirin Salehi will introduce the participants to non-legible books through an extensive one-month discussion on legibility and hiddenness in artwork in book form. Starting with an introduction on illegibility through examples of Asemic Writing, the instructor will propose works intentionally deciphered, unreadable, and inaccessible, through a selection of case studies of Artist’s books and artworks in order to raise questions on what lies beneath the hidden language.

The course is designed to deepen reflection and poetical reasoning. All students are encouraged to actively participate in discussions throughout the workshop. The class will be divided by discussion of case studies and critiques. Though the theory discussion is the basis of the class’s structure, the instructor will work with each participant on their ideas and intuitions in order to create the initial structure of the personal Artist’s book project.

The course is open to artists, poets, thinkers, and all creative individuals interested in participating in critique and theoretical discussions related to book arts and to artworks with a specific emphasis on bookness.

Required Materials:

• No materials or tools are needed in advance of the course. The Instructor will help each participant identify what they need based on their respective projects.
  

About the Instructor:

Shirin Salehi (she/her) is an Iranian visual artist, educator, writer, and translator based in Madrid. Working across printmaking, drawing, sculpture, and artist’s books, she explores the poetic subtleties of language—especially illegible writing, erasure, and hiddenness. Trained in printmaking, her practice reflects a deep engagement with time, imprint, and the material traces of language.

She has held residencies at Est-Nor-Est in Quebec (2025), the Academy of Spain in Rome (2021), the Academy of France in Madrid (2014), and Fondazione Il Bisonte in Florence (2016). In 2022, she was nominated for the Queen Sonja Print Award in Norway. Since 2020, she has also worked as an interpreter and mediator for Persian-speaking asylum seekers and refugees.

All images courtesy of the instructor.