An unusual collaboration between indigenous Warli artists, a writer-gardener and book artisans, this book is a celebration of the miracle that is the seed and its place in our lives and cultures. Read on for an account of its evolution, and how it came to take its imaginative final shape, a combination of four book forms—each of them reflecting a particular aspect of the cosmos contained in a seed. ...

By Gita Wolf

When we first published this book, we didn’t overthink it…25 years later, its time has come again, though in a slightly altered form. So what has changed in the meantime? Quite a lot, as it turns out. ...

By Anaïs Beaulieu

An embroiderer’s skill is actually revealed by the quality of the work on the reverse side of the fabric — the hidden intersection of threads and knots that hold the embroidery in place. It is not seen immediately, and yet must be impeccable. Perhaps a book works somewhat like embroidery...

By V. Geetha

For over twenty years now, we have curated exhibitions to do with our books and publishing. Some of these have focused on individual titles, others on our book-making, and yet others on broad themes that define our intertwined publishing concerns — to do with content, form and printing. As we worked on Painting Everything in the World, we pondered over these other exhibitions. What, we asked ourselves, is the relationship between curation and publishing?...

By Gita Wolf and Catriona Maciver

It was a sensory experience, to say the least, to rummage through dusty drawers full of metal and wooden type faces in all shapes and sizes. Sadly, most of the sets were incomplete – since Tara had bought the press second hand, and the type was thrown in – so we found ourselves hunting down characters to form words, as though we were putting together a puzzle....

By Gita Wolf

We’re proud and gratified to finally present the world with a project that is especially close to our feminist hearts. Several years in the making, the story of how this amazing book came to be is worth telling, at length....

By V. Geetha and Sanjana Vamadevan

Our linocut-illustrated, letterpressed classic Little Girls Are Wiser Than Men was released in February of 2021. Adapted from a poetic short story by the great Russian writer Leo Tolstoy, this astute tale about conflict and resolution has been illustrated by the Lebanese artist and lithographer Hassan Zahreddine....

By V. Geetha

Of the many titles that we have published over this quarter century, books featuring tribal and folk art outnumber all others. The artists that we have worked with come from different traditions, spread across the country, but there are almost none from southern India. Seeing Ramu Velar at work, we realised that this part of India might not have living traditions of art, but there were artisanal traditions that could furnish visual content for illustrated books. ...

By Maguma

Spanish artist Maguma reinterprets a classic tale of greed and need, by the Grimm brothers, for contemporary readers. The story opens out into two parallel visual narratives — one set in times past and the other rooted in a dystopian present. As possessions and fortunes are rapidly exchanged, who wins and who loses? And what exactly does winning and losing entail?...

By Rathna Ramanathan

From her studio Minus 9 Design, Rathna Ramanathan has worked with Tara Books on projects over the last twenty years. Here, she reflects on her experiences of collaborating with Tara Books in the context of sustainable modes of design and production, and alternative models of publishing....