Pankisi Prayer Rug

Clifton Meador

2016

“Let’s imagine that a prayer rug is both a form of media and a mode of transport: the weaving of the rug embodies patterns and symbols that communicate with a tradition; simultaneously, the rug creates space for carrying a worshipper to prayer.

Pankisi Prayer Rug celebrates the materiality of the book: photographed, written, designed, and printed by the author in six-color offset lithography and hand bound by John DeMerritt and Nora Pauwels, it evokes the tension foiund in the international hysteria over Islamic fundamentalism, the long history of conflict in the northern Caucausus, and the reality of life in a small district that briefly became a hot spot in the War on Terror.”

Pankisi Prayer Rug is published in two editions:

A regular edition of 100 copies,

smythe sewn, and bound in a lap case

tongue-in-groove binding with laminated boards,

signed and numbered,

$220

A special edition of 30 copies,

hand-sewn with six colors of thread and bound in a Bradel binding with slate antique English buckram.

The book is wrapped in a chiaroscuro felt print (produced at Magnolia Editions) and housed
in a custom pull-off box.

Signed and lettered using the Georgian Alphabet,

$1700