Love is Resistance: Art book for Palestine features Samia Halaby, Alana Hadid, Massive Attack and more

All proceeds will be donated to the Ajyal Foundation, which provides psychosocial support for children

Step by Step by Samia Halaby. Photo: Aya Mousawi

An art book for Palestine, with pages designed to be torn out and used as protest posters, is releasing later this month, featuring contributions by figures ranging from Samia Halaby to Massive Attack.

Love is Resistance brings together 77 commissioned posters by artists, musicians, writers, designers, filmmakers, actors and digital creators from across the world.

Published by Saqi, the book will be launched at London’s Ibraaz on October 18 before officially releasing on October 23. All proceeds from the book will be donated the Ajyal Foundation and the charity’s mission to providing long-term rehabilitation to the children of Gaza.

Love is Resistance was spearheaded by curator Aya Mousawi. It was realised in less than four months, she says. “It was all, not to say rushed, but there was an urgency to it.”

The book, after all, was conceived as a response to Israel’s war on Gaza, a way for cultural figures to channel their outrage and grief into a collective message of solidarity. Its urgency demanded speed.

The idea for the book only came about in June. Mousawi was browsing the gift shop of the Barbican Centre in London when she came across Dream in Color: 30 Posters of Power by 30 Black Creatives. It was this book, with its removable pages and posters, that sparked the idea for Love is Resistance.

“I was like, ‘Oh, wow, I need to do this for Palestine’,” Mousawi says. “And it was just like a light bulb moment.”

Within days, she was drafting lists and spreadsheets, reaching out to friends, artists and activists for contributions. Her methodical approach, honed over 17 years of working in cultural production, was vital to getting the book out as quickly as possible. Her list of contacts, too, proved invaluable.

“I started with those closest to me who had been active voices,” Mousawi says. “I had a really long list and then kind of refined it. I just started reaching out to friends like Shumon Basar, Michael Rakowitz, Tai Shani, Lawrence Abu Hamdan… artists who I knew had been part of the movement in London. There was no checklist of who’s hot or interesting. It was completely organic – friends, voices I followed online, people who moved me.”

Mousawi kept the brief open to interpretation, inviting contributors to submit either existing or new works. “It could be a story, a piece of text, a visual, a poem, a whisper, a prayer, anything. The title Love is Resistance kept it anchored,” Mousawi says. “It’s this idea that there are many ways that we resist, and love is a big one. I think it kind of captures the sentiment so much, that thing of like: we can't slip into despair, otherwise they win.”

Land Back, Dima Srouji. Photo: Aya Mousawi

The list of contributors quickly grew as word about the project quickly began circulating and more figures wanted to take part in this show of solidarity. It features names such as Dima Srouji, Hala Alyan, Hassan Hajjaj, Rami Farook and Hazem Harb. Soon, even Samia Halaby came on board, contributing with a poster she had designed in 1970.

“I knew it had to be in the book,” Mousawi says. “It’s the opening poster.”

There were even designs by figures who are not particularly known as designers, such as Mashrou’ Leila’s Hamed Sinno, who collaborated with Maya Moumne for his entry, as well as by Alana Hadid and author Hala Alyan.

Massive Attack's contribution to the project. Photo: Aya Mousawi

The project, soon, extended to beyond the Arab world. International voices such as Brian Eno and Massive Attack added their names to the growing list of contributors, in a way showing how “the global movement of solidarity has grown significantly in the last two years,” Mousawi says.

“Palestine is the thing that dissolves your work, your profession, your social background, and all of these kinds of boundaries that define and separate us,” Mousawi says. “They are dissolved in this kind of unifying thing where we're kind of connected as humans. And you see it physically when you attend the protests in London. The kind of the demographic and the way that it's shifted is remarkable.”

With Love is Resistance, Mousawi says she aimed to create a similar kind of space, where figures from across industries and professions rallying to express their solidarity and demand justice.

Alana Hadid's contribution, designed in collab with Hey Porter. Photo: Aya Mousawi

“I tried to bring together some of those different sectors,” she says. “We have a contribution from University of the Arts London student group. We have one from Gaza Cola, the brand that Palestine House put together, which is an alternative to drinking Coca-Cola and spreading the visual language of Palestine.”

Mousawi says Love is Resistance was never meant to be only a symbolic gesture. She had wanted it to make a concrete impact from the outset, which is why it was imperative that the proceeds of the book go to a charity.

Ajyal Foundation was selected for their psychosocial support for children. The book, in fact, also includes poster designs done by children at the foundation.

“They're focused on how to rehabilitate children, how to support them with mental health needs,” Mousawi says. “There's no mental health course that can help with the children in Gaza; there is no such thing as PTSD. They're all still experiencing it.”

As one of their projects, the foundation has designed a mental health manual, with the help of leading psychologists from around the world, to train teachers on how to work with children in Gaza.

“This idea that we're investing in the next generation of children is a commitment to the future of Palestine,” Mousawi says. “It’s not just about the urgency of immediate humanitarian support in response to the genocide, but this idea that we have to think about what the future looks like.”

Find more information at www.loveisresistance.art