A few weeks back at Onnik’s London presentation I met a great young American Diasporan, Emily Artinian. Emily is an artist who makes limited edition artist’s books and text based art, exploring different aspects of literature and textual theory. This past summer she lived in Yerevan as an artist in residence at NPAK (Armenian Centre for Contemporary & Experimental Art). I love NPAK - it is a great space for a lot of good work being done.

While at NPAK Emily published ‘From Ararat to Angeltown’, a large format book about post-Soviet Armenian literature and the Yerevan based writers’ group Bnagir (Beware - the site is NOT in Unicode.) The book is in Armenian and English on corresponding pages.

Table of Contents: Love by Violet Grigorian; Yerevan is a Big City by Mariné Petrossian; Brotherhood by Vahan Ishkhanyan; Of Cats and Dogs by Gohar Nikoghosyan; Landslide by Vahram Martirosyan (the first two chapters of the novel); Love at Every Sight by Karen Karslyan.

Emily says the the works are amazing!

Also included are excerpts from transcripts of Emily’s discussions with the group during her 2004 artist’s residency in Armenia. This text highlights the difficulties of publication facing progressive writers in this ex-Soviet republic, difficulties that are a result of limited cultural acceptance at home, limited economic resources, and also a lack of connections to publication and distribution organisations in the west.

You can order the book on Emily’s site.

And, check out Emily’s site for more information about her work.