Najah Albukaï. Graver la mémoire

In 2022, Éditions El Viso published the first monograph by draughtswoman, printmaker and painter Najah Albukaï. It tells the story of a peaceful professor at the Damascus School of Fine Arts who, in 2012, is imprisoned by the bloodthirsty regime of Bashar al-Assad. He is tortured relentlessly until his miraculous release and escape from Syria in 2015, before finding refuge in France, where he lives today.

Najah Albukaï has always been able to draw - thousands of drawings that she managed to hide and exfiltrate. Today, her deeply moving work is a testimony. Torture, daily life in prison, the jailers, the detainees. She is like Goya in Syria. The book reproduces almost 150 of these drawings, as well as engravings and paintings, which ‘illustrate’ the unspeakable reality.

In this fascinating book, to which art historian Laurence Bertrand-Dorléac and neuropsychiatrist Boris Cyrulnik have made illuminating contributions, Najah Albukaï confides in journalist Denis Lafay and recounts his harrowing descent into hell. It's an account that sheds light on the terrifying realities of the el-Assad regime.