Keep Your Eye on the Wall: Palestinian Landscapes

"Shockingly beautiful and evocative . . . the artists echo the feelings of Palestinians who have to make do with life in a divided, disfigured land."—Raja Shehadeh

In art and literature, walls are frequently used as powerful symbols of division. For the people of Palestine, however, the wall that cuts deeply into their land and society is all too real, snaking through over seven hundred kilometres of the West Bank. It throttles Palestinians, seals off Israelis, and all but guarantees perpetual ignorance, fear, and rage on both sides.

Keep Your Eye on the Wall brings together seven award-winning artist-photographers and four essayists, all responding to the Wall in images or words, specially commissioned for this book. The photographers present unique perspectives, whether documenting the journey of laborers across the barrier, the desolation of abandoned checkpoints, or the tattered posters of "martyrs" on a wall in Gaza.

Featuring the photographic work of Taysir Batniji, Raed Bawayah, Rula Halawani, Noel Jabbour, Raeda Saadeh, Steve Sabella, and Kai Wiedonhöfer, and the words of Malu Halasa, Yael Lerer, Christine Leuenberger, and Adania Shibli.

Olivia Snaije is the books editor for Harper's Bazaar Art and a reporter for Beirut's Daily Star. She was formerly executive editor at Alef, a London-based magazine covering Middle Eastern culture, and editor-in-chief of World Media in Paris.

Mitchell Albert was the program director of Writers' Centre Norwich and the former editorial director of PEN International. He is currently associate editor of Steppe, a magazine of Central Asian arts and culture.