Ali Kazim Alphabet Book | Urdu Qaida

"Ali Kazim attention to the ability of words to articulate identity, and the consequent urgency of maintaining a connection to our native languages in an era of migration and exile." Hammad Nassar

Ali Kazim: Alphabet Book | Urdu Qaida, a new 144-page book, is a collaboration between artist Ali Kazim and curator Hammad Nasar. The book opens up the Urdu alphabet for English and Urdu readers alike, setting it alongside Kazim's gaze into South Asia – its flora and fauna, histories, legends, and everyday life on its streets.

Urdu alphabet books or qaidas sit in the school bags of millions of children in the sub-continent, and among its diaspora. With its attention to design, typography and reprographics, this artist's book takes the Urdu alphabet on a journey of the imagination, connecting it to the spaces within which it lives, while chronicling an extraordinary art practice over two decades.

Designed by London-based Studio LG - HM, with Urdu typography by Birmingham-based designer Abeera Kamran, the book includes a new typeface developed by her for the large Urdu lettering in the book. The book also includes an essay by Hammad Nasar on the gestation of this project, Kazim's art practice, and the Urdu language-world the artist inhabits.

Publisher: Ochre Books
Published: 2026