The Night Life of Trees

The Night Life of Trees is an exquisite hand-bound and screen-printed book of paintings by three of the finest artists of the Gond tribal art tradition. The Gonds, a tribe of central India, are traditionally forest dwellers. They believe that trees are hard at work during the day providing shelter and nourishment to all. Only when night falls can they finally rest, and their spirits reveal themselves. These luminous spirits are captured in The Night Life of Trees, a fascinating and haunting foray into the Gond imagination. Each painting is accompanied by its own poetic tale, myth or lore, narrated by the artists themselves, which recreate the familiarity and awe with which the Gond people view the natural world. Screen-printed by hand on black paper, every page of this book is an original print. Each book in this limited second edition of 1,000 is individually numbered.

Hailing from the Gond tribe of Madhya Pradesh in India, Bhajju Shayam's captivating visuals and easy storytelling style fuse his perceptions of the modern world with his tribe's unique visual language. His work has been exhibited widely in India, as well as in Milan, The Hague, Paris and London. Perhaps the most versatile artist of the Gond art tradition, Bhajju uses inherited forms in very current and expressive ways, while experimenting with innovative subjects and new ideas. "There are new influences in my work, but my art is still the same", he has said, reflecting upon his success. "I never expected this kind of response; I thought people would find my way of looking at the world odd".