Kaph Books

02/08/2025

Co-published with @421.online , “Madness of the Anthropocene: Thinking with an image” brings together artists and writers who use image-making and text as means to understand ecological change.

This experimental approach is inspired by Bayan al-Madrasa al-Kristaliyya (The Crystal Manifesto), published in 1976 by the Crystalist School in Khartoum, Sudan, consisting of Kamala Ibrahim Ishaq, Muhammad Hamid Shaddad, Naiyla al-Tayib, Hisham Abdallah, and Hashim Ibrahim.
The editor wanted to utilize this modernist text as a curatorial lens to explore contemporary art, asking primary questions, focusing on recent artistic productions from West Asia and the Gulf region.

Edited by: Lina Ramadan

With contributions by:

Rojda Tuğrul
Nour Shantout
Lina Ramadan
Ritika Biswas .biswas.77
Reem Ibrahim Al Sehlawi
Fatma Ebrahim Al Sehlawi .alsehlawi
Moza Almatrooshi .samosa
Asmaa Al-Issa

Design by .pahul

Now available to order worldwide!

01/08/2025

Co-published with @421.online , “Madness of the Anthropocene: Thinking with an Image” gathers artists and writers exploring ecological change through image-making and text.

Inspired by the Crystalist School’s 1976 The Crystal Manifesto, the book offers new perspectives on art, time, science, and the Anthropocene.

Edited by Lina Ramadan

With contributions by:
Asmaa Al-Issa
Fatma Ebrahim Al Sehlawi
Lina Ramadan
Moza Almatrooshi
Nour Shantout
Reem Ibrahim Al Sehlawi
Ritika Biswas
Rojda Tuğrul

Design by .pahul

Book available to order worldwide in bookstores and online.

15/06/2025

Launched in Venice by the Diriyah Biennale Foundation, ‘Rooted Transience’ is both an exhibition and a publication developed in conjunction with the inaugural AlMusalla Prize.

Presented at the Abbazia di San Gregorio, it is part of the 19th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia.

On May 10th 2025, H.E. Rakan Al-Touq, Assistant Minister of Culture and Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Diriyah Biennale Foundation, along with CEO Aya Al-Bakree, unveiled the winning pavilion by EAST Architecture Studio, in collaboration with Rayyane Tabet and AKT II. The project explores the architectural potential of the AlMusalla as a space shaped by adaptability, impermanence, and cultural memory.

Curated by Faysal Tabbarah, the exhibition demonstrates how traditional design principles can inform and inspire future approaches to Islamic architecture.

The book is co-edited by Prince Nawaf Bin Ayyaf and Faysal Tabbarah, with contributions by Khaled Azzam · Nasser Rabbat · Hanif Kara · Ziad Jamaleddine · Wesam Al Asali · Noura AlSayeh-Holtrop · Ali Malkawi · Azra Aksamija · Farrokh Derakhshani · Lina Ghotmeh · Moath Alofi · Jood AlThukair.

Design:

Now available to order through any bookshop or online retailer.
Visit kaphbooks.com for more.

Photographs courtesy of

12/06/2025

Published on the occasion of the inaugural AlMusalla Prize 2025, part of the Islamic Arts Biennale, Rooted Transience explores how adaptable spaces and cultural memory can shape the future of Islamic architectural practice.

Co-edited by Prince Nawaf Bin Ayyaf and Faysal Tabbarah, the book weaves together essays, reflections, and intimate conversations around the architectural typology of the musalla, revealing its many layered and evolving meanings.

The book was launched alongside the exhibition ‘Rooted Transience’, curated by Faysal Tabbarah at the Abbazia di San Gregorio during the 19th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia 2025.

AlMusalla Prize winners:
East Architecture Studio · Rayyane Tabet · AKT II · Christopher Blust

Featuring contributions from:
Khaled Azzam · Nasser Rabbat · Hanif Kara · Ziad Jamaleddine · Wesam Al Asali · Noura AlSayeh-Holtrop · Ali Malkawi · Azra Aksamija · Farrokh Derakhshani · Lina Ghotmeh · Moath Alofi · Jood AlThukair

Design:

Now available to order through any bookshop or online retailer.
Visit kaphbooks.com for more.

.s.husseini

12/06/2025

04/06/2025

▪️Official catalog of the National Pavilion of Lebanon at the 19th Venice biennale of Architecture, “The Land Remembers” invites us to explore alternative ways of healing and preserving the natural environment by harnessing local knowledge and the land intelligence.

The content of this catalog confronts the deliberate destruction of Lebanon’s ecosystems and societies, drawing on the soil’s memory as a testament to resilience and renewal.

The format of the memory box is an archive of the land’s richness, challenges, and potential, asking: How can we heal the land to build for future generations?

The catalog combines expert analysis, personal stories, and diverse perspectives on destruction, regeneration, and coexistence. From ecological restoration to regenerative architecture and preservation of Lebanon’s biodiversity, it underscores the urgent need for a symbiotic relationship between people and nature.

Edited by pavilion curators Collective for Architecture Lebanon and

With contributions by: Nadine Bekdache, Karim Emile Bitar, Magda Bou Dagher Kharrat, Lynn Chamoun, Mohamed Choucair, Adib Dada, Shereen Doummar, Rhea Kahale, Abir Saksouk, Sarah Sinno, Edouard Souhaid, Elias Tamer, Rami Zurayk.

Design by: photographs courtesy of

14/05/2025

▪️Official catalog of the National Pavilion UAE at the 19th Biennale of Architecture in Venice.

Co-published with National Pavilion UAE

Cooking and architecture have a lot in common. Both start with a set of ingredients that are combined to create a whole; one that is often greater than the sum of its parts. Conceived as a publication for this year’s National Pavilion UAE’s pavilion at La Biennale di Venezia 2025, this architectural cookbook features recipes that range from the technical to the fictional to the historic. It showcases a multitude of responses to a curated selection of key ingredients, providing creative, flavorful, and accessible ways to reflect on food production in a harsh desert climate such as the UAE’s.

Edited by Azza Aboualam .aboualam

Contributions by: Azza Aboualam, Sarah Saad Alajami, Huma Gupta, Faysal Tabbarah, Kevin Mitchell, Brittany Utting, Daniel Jacobs, Dimitri Brand, Elisa Iturbe, Rashed Almulla, Kit Elsworth.

Design .themobius

Photographs courtesy of

11/05/2025

▪️Official catalog of the National Pavilion of the Kingdom of Morocco at the 19th Biennale of Architecture in Venice.

The book provides insights into the Pavilion’s central theme: construction techniques using local materials.

The book delves deeper, broadens, and extends this reflection through a multiscalar approach, exploring climate and ecological challenges, the transmission of knowledge, circular economy principles, and the innovative potential of Moroccan architecture.

Structured as a trilogy between material, technique, and humanity, the book is divided into two complementary sections, readable from either direction.

The first, artistic and immersive, takes the form of a journal where dialogues, sketches, photographs, and archives reveal the behind-the-scenes process of designing the Pavilion, blending experimentation and production.

The second, intellectual and academic, brings together articles and essays by researchers, architects, and geologists, situating local construction techniques within a sustainable reflection on their future.

Authors & pavilion curators: Khalil Morad El Ghilali et El Mehdi Belyasmine .co

Edited by LABERINTO .studio

Contributors: El Mehdi Belyasmine, Alia Bengana, Fatima Zahra Ben Hamza, Rabia Charef, Khalil Morad El Ghilali, Philippe Garnier, Hatim Ham, Rabiaa Harrak, Mouncif Ibnoussina, Soumiya Jalal, Elie Mouyal, Ronald Rael. Nadya Rouizem, Fayçal Tiaïba.

Graphic Design: Nathalie Franck .franck

Images courtesy of .franck

04/05/2025

▪️▪️▪️6 books launching next week for 4 National Pavilions and 2 affiliated events.

Kaph is publishing the official catalogs for:

• National Pavilion of the UAE:
Pressure Cooker Recipes – An Architectural Cookbook
Edited by pavilion curator .aboualam

• National Pavilion of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia:
The Um Slaim School – An Architecture of Connection
- Book edited by Ahmad Makia
- Pavilion curated by .architects

• National Pavilion of the Kingdom of Morocco: Materiae Palimpsest
- Book edited by .studio
- Pavilion curated by El Mehdi Belyasmine and Khalil Morad El Ghiali, with and .co

• National Pavilion of Lebanon: The Land Remembers
- Edited by pavilion curators

• Affiliated Event for Al Mussala Prize: Rooted Transience
Edited by and
Al Mussala Prize winners: collaborative team

• Affiliated Event for Diriyah Biennale Foundation , the book launch of “After Rain” the book for the 2024 contemporary arts biennale.
Edited by

22/04/2025

Grateful to see our publications in New York thanks to the incredible support of our distributors

Kaph Books are distributed worldwide, online platforms & bookstores!

04/04/2025

Dummy testing in progress for the very special publication of the National Pavilion of Lebanon at the 19th biennale of Architecture in Venice.
ً• Edited by curating team and
• Another incredible design by

04/04/2025

“If you have a group voice there’s a lot of power in that moment. So I use participatory workshops as a group voice.” – Manal Aldowayan says in her latest book, “Oasis of Stories”,
that in her artwork, she takes the old town of AlUla as her starting point, a bridge between what came before and where we are today, a small town that sits cradled between architectural wonders and geographic phenomena, comfortable in its presence and empowered with its responsibility. She wanted to create a work that translates what this modest human structure symbolises in the greater narrative of the area and her country, Saudi Arabia.

Edited by