Exactly 100 years separate the birth of the American Jew Yehoshua Kaminsky and the birth of Urszula Palusinska, a young Polish illustrator. The exhibition was born out of Kaminsky’s book “Mayn Alef-Beis” (My Alphabet), combining short Yiddish songs and rhymes playing with the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, and Palusinska’s illustrations to the book, for which she was awarded the Bologna prize. In the book, a chosen word represents each of the letters of the alphabet, for which Kaminsky composed a short rhyming poem. The poems have been illustrated by Palusinska in such a way that each double spread relates to 2 components: the Hebrew letter, and Kaminsky’s rhyme. The two pages complement each other with humor, line, and color, producing movement and a simple and light flow that matches the poetic rhythm of the text. The illustrations resemble the traditional print technique of wood cut, and their subjects are reminiscent of images from European children’s songs and legends: the wolf, the forest, the tailor, and so on. The composition is built up of smooth surfaces of color, between which are airy sections of white and black. The picture that emerges from the illustrations is of an everyday, rural, domestic environment, simple and full of life, like that found in legends, which for the most part is no longer part of contemporary childhood. The exhibition, inspired by a children’s book, preserves the initial experience of play and childhoods and presents the works as if in a children’s room. The illustrations skip lightly, and with the charm of a child, accompanied by an exclusive soundtrack that also connects between here and there, and between once upon a time and now.

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Curator: 

Avital Naor Vexler

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Sound: 

Neta Weiner

 

Address:

12 Agrippas St., Jerusalem 
Telephone:  054-2374420

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Opening hours: 

Monday – Thursday 16:30 – 19:30 | Friday 11:00 – 14:00