Beasts of India - Handmade Book

PLEASE NOTE: Cover color of current edition differs slightly from image shown and features a golden-yellow zebra on a navy background.

By Kanchana Arni and Gita Wolf, with Various Artists

Here are India’s best-known beasts — tiger, elephant, deer, snake… — rendered by a variety of folk and tribal artists. Each of their artistic traditions conceives of the beast in distinctive ways, as original in the imagining as it is in the rendering. This handmade book is a new, updated version of Tara Books' classic Beasts of India, long out of print. Individually screenprinted on handmade paper, this wonderful introduction to Indian painting styles is an art and book lover’s dream.

Tara Books, hardcover (silkscreen-printed on handmade paper), 7.5 x 7.5 inches, 48 pages.

Tara Books is an award-winning, internationally-recognized independent publishing house made up of a collective of writers, designers and book artisans who favor a non-hierarchical mode of functioning, informed by feminism and other movements for social justice.

Founded in 1994 by Gita Wolf and based in Chennai, India, Tara Books runs its own print shop, employing over 25 bookmaking artisans on a fair-trade basis. Known for their handmade books, they use handmade paper and non-toxic inks to create numbered artists’ books, as well as art prints and unique stationery (we also carry their wonderful Flukebooks!)

They collaborate with a range of writers, artists and designers from lndia and elsewhere, and an integral part of their publishing is a pioneering engagement with the rich diversity of Indian folk and tribal art.