LETTERS FROM HOME 2004 , edition 14 of 20

Letters from Home, is a portfolio of eight prints, based on my sister’s
letters. On a visit to her in 2003, she gave me letters she had written
to me but never posted. The letters were to let me know about deaths
in the family, selling her house and how much she had missed me.
Perhaps she wrote these letters to herself; putting these emotions on
paper might have helped her to cope with her grief.
I left India in my early 20s, and my family moved across the border
in 1959. My sister’s letters have been my connections to my family,
culture and the language I grew up in.
When I returned to New York, I decided to make a portfolio based
on her letters. I had metal cuts made from six of her letters, printed
them on Japanese handmade paper and overprinted the letters with
woodcuts of maps, floor plans and the image of a house.
The letters are in Urdu, in my sister’s handwriting. Few people read
Urdu or for that matter write letters anymore.