Aisha Khalid - Name, Class, Subject

This very subtle book looks, at first glance, like a children's exercise book with ruled pages. However, each page is actually a painting in the Mughal miniature tradition. But in stark contrast to the ornate decoration usually associated with the miniature, Pakistani artist Aisha Khalid's painted pages are a clever response to the line widths found in handwriting exercise books: half of the pages adhere to the rules employed to teach English, while the rest correspond to those used to teach Urdu. Meeting in the middle, the centerfold reveals a space akin to a no-man's-land in print. Characterizing the two cultures in relation to the subtle variations of the ruled lines, Khalid's book project presents a series of juxtapositions that comment on the tensions underlying Pakistan's past and present.