Title: The First Shore Le Premier Rivage

Artist: Ali Arkady

Year: 2025

Medium: Direct transfer on 23 archival high-density cardboard leaves, custom curved-spine architectural binding

Dimensions: 12 x 16 x 9 cm (4.72 x 6.30 x 3.54 in)

Pages: 23 archival leaves

Weight: 1.5 kg

Edition: Unique piece (1/1)

Price: €6,800

About the Artwork:

"The First Shore" is a unique sculptural artist's book realized through direct photographic transfer onto twenty-three leaves of premium archival cardboard. Born from Ali Arkady’s journalistic and documentary immersion in Senegal spanning the vibrant coastal rhythms of Dakar to remote southern communities the work traces two parallel human journeys: the historical weight of Gorée Island’s shores, where enslaved Africans took their final gaze toward the Atlantic, and a health documentary expedition confronting the ravages of mosquito-borne malaria.

Conceived primarily as a sculptural monument rather than a conventional codex, the piece features an intentionally curved back structure that prevents the pages from opening entirely flat. This architectural constraint invites a tactile, secretive engagement with the images, echoing the suffocating legacy of history and the feverish opacity of the southern landscapes. Each page stands as an immutable archival fragment of memory, dignity, and survival.