Dr.O, Simone Fattal

imagine/otherwise presents critical biographies of underrepresented queer, non-binary, or female-identifying artists. Edited by Dr. Omar Kholeif and presented in collaboration with artPost21, the series emphasizes the concept of “female worlding” with books that serve as field guides into previously unexplored, overlooked, or inaccessible artistic lives. The overall proposition of the series (to “imagine” a world “otherwise”) stems from the desire to find a different way of writing and reading about art. Can art be examined unreservedly, unburdened of the limits imposed by the dominant hand of hegemony? Current editorial advisors for the series include Skye Arundhati Thomas, Zoe Butt, Carla Chammas, Alison Hearst, Sarah Perks and Sofia Victorino.

Texts by Dr. Omar Kholeif, Rasha Salti

For over five decades, Simone Fattal (b. 1942, Damascus) has eschewed singular form or subject in her wide-ranging artistic practice. In this deeply personal biography, Fattal’s close friend and confidante Hans Ulrich Obrist journeys with the artist across physical borders and through seats of imagination. Together they discuss the artist's remarkable early life in Syria, her coming-of-age in Lebanon, as well as her transcultural life in France. Wartime memory and exile in California, sow the seed for discussions regarding archaeology, history, and mythology.

Beginning her artistic life as a painter in 1969, Fattal initially created sensuous abstract works that diverged from the predominantly figurative paintings commonly exhibited in Lebanon at the time. In 1980, after a decade spent in Lebanon, Fattal fled the ongoing civil war, departing from painting, eventually settling in Sausalito, California, where she founded the revolutionary publishing house, Post-Apollo Press.

In 1988, after studying sculpture in San Francisco, Fattal was consumed by another wave of creativity that led her to pursue the creation of ambitious ceramic sculpture—a medium in which she continues to work in to this day from her studio in Paris.

Prose and interviews between Fattal and Obrist are annotated and introduced by Dr. Omar Kholeif, whose essay helps situate Fattal’s multiple creative journeys. An afterword by author, curator and filmmaker, Rasha Salti entitled, Warrior Women Fall From a Low Height pulses, both in its lyricism and its expressive desire to solder and suture histories, once fractious, back together

February 2025, English

11×16 cm, 168 pages

Designed by: Simon Josebury, SecMoCo

Published by: Sternberg Press

Co published by: artPost21