Talks at Magasin III Jaffa Books
Dana Yoeli & Nana Ariel : Why Make Books?
At times, the act of creating a book may appear almost an act of madness. Art books have little demand; the world has turned digital; political upheavals consume cultural energy – and the book seems like a remnant of yesterday’s world. But is that truly the case? Are we moving toward an era without printed books, or rather toward the revival of the printed book? What possibilities open up when books are produced in small editions and through a local approach? Is there meaning, or even purpose, in making such books today? In other words – why make books?
Artist Dana Yoeli and researcher and writer Nana Ariel meet for a conversation at Magasin III Jaffa Books.
Dana Yoeli is a multidisciplinary artist living and working in Tel Aviv. She holds both a BFA and MFA from the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, and also studied at HAW Hamburg, Germany. Her fourth artist’s book, The Terror of the Void, was self-published in December 2024, following her previous artist’s books Olympia, Aleph-Bet, and Spruce.
Yoeli’s practice weaves together styles and techniques grounded in meticulous craftsmanship and painterly skill. Her work encompasses artist’s books, panoramic paintings, monumental still-life compositions, finely detailed drawings in colored pencil and graphite, miniature maquettes, porcelain fountains, and large-scale concrete wall pieces.
Nana Ariel is an author, scholar, and lecturer at the Faculty of Humanities at Tel Aviv University. Her fifth book, Clichés We Live By: From Modernity to AI – co-authored with philosopher of language Dana Rizel – will soon be published by Oxford University Press. Her essays have appeared in both local and international journals and magazines.
Together with her partner, Ori Yoeli, she founded Dfus Beit (“Home Press”), a boutique publishing house and book workshop operating from their home in Tel Aviv-Jaffa. She is also a children’s author, known for The Most Boring Book in the World and The Strange and Unbelievable Story of Comma and Period (Asia Publishing), both of which she also designed.