Hamed Abdalla (1917–1985) is a key figure in Egyptian modernism and global art history. His plastic and poetic inventions not only reflect over forty years of political and philosophical debate in the Arab world and the Mediterranean but also gave birth to an exiled modernity: to the cities where he lived and worked (Cairo, Copenhagen, Paris) and aesthetic movements he interacted with (CoBrA, lettrism, Islamic arts…) Organised as an ABCDarium this book is not a traditional catalogue but an inquiry through the artist’s personal archive and library; documenting his erudite wanderings between different cultural universes, beyond West and East, where one defines himself as a Trans-Arab and cosmopolitan visual thinker.

Published alongside the exhibition Hamed Abdalla: ARABECEDAIRE, Mosaic Rooms, London (13 April-23 June 2018).