"The 1001 Nights: A Visual Retelling" Project
"The 1001 Nights: A Visual Retelling" project aims to create a dialogue between contributors who will collaborate to create a body of work inspired by the stories of The One Thousand and One Nights.
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I invite you and anyone you know to take part.
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See the "Get Involved!" tab in the menu above.
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This project started whilst on a trip to Beirut, where I was given a book to read. It was "One Thousand And One Nights: A Retelling" by Lebanese author Hanan Al-Shaykh.
Her writing was so captivating, lively and full of humanity, and after each chapter I just wanted to draw the picture she had painted in my head.
I have now finished the series of drawings inspired by Hanan Al-Shaykh's book and it got me thinking about how we each tell a story in a different way.
The aim is to gather a body of work from various contributors across multiple genres that demonstrates the beautifully diverse way we each tell a story.
Story Gallery
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Click on an ILLUSTRATION to see it larger.
Or click on a TITLE to find out more about the story and see related work from collaborators.
About the Stories
Gathered and passed down over the centuries from India, Persia and across the Arab world, the mesmerising folk stories of one thousand and one nights tell of the real and the supernatural , love and marriage, power and punishment, wealth and poverty, and the endless trials and uncertainties of fate.
They are related to us by the beautiful, wise, Shahrazad, daughter of the King’s Visier, who gives herself up to murderous King Shahrayar to save the fate of others women in the kingdom.
Due to his wife’s infidelity the king has vowed to wed and then the next day kill a maiden from his kingdom every night. Shahrazad decides to take matters in to her own hands. She offers to wed the king but will not be defeated by his murderous appetites. To save herself, she cunningly spins a web of tales every night, leaving the king in suspense by the time the sun rises, thus prolonging her life for another day.
These stories are full of women who have endured great hardship and injustice, woman who have realised their own strength, used their wits to fight their battles but also shows their cruelty and vulnerability. They are written with brutal honesty which lends itself to the humorous as well as the macabre.
These are a collection of 20 illustrations I have been working on over the past 6 years, inspired by Hanna al shaykh’s captivating retelling of one thousand and one nights that I was fortunate enough to be given on a trip to Beirut. I have tried to recapture the essence of her writing with the organic process by which I work. Reading a story at a time and letting the narrative flow from my pen, often not knowing how a picture will end up.
Over time my relationship with the stories have changed which has been something I was not expecting when I started and I have loved getting lost in them.
I have drawn on many influences and have indulged in the exoticism and orietalism that is so present in Western retellings such as Disney’s raggedy street kids and Hollywood’s kohl eyed heroes. I am not representing a culture but wondering through the colours and patterns of the stories as I read them, allowing everything and anything that comes to mind to be put on the page.
At their heart these stories speak of human nature in all it’s ugly brutality, wild humour and romance.
Prints available on request
One thousand and One Nights - by Hanan Al-Shaykh, is available through Bloomsbury in the book shops and online.
For more information and future illustrations:
E-mail: the1001nightsvr@gmail.com
www.facebook.com/bryonydevittillustration
Instagram: @the1001nightsproject or @bryonydevitt
Contact Me
Send your work to
Send in your work to:
email: 1001nightsvr@gmail.com
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You can follow the project on:
Instagram @1001nightsproject
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You can also follow me here:
Instagram @bryonydevitt
Instagram @bryony.devitt (online sketchbook)
Facebook @bryonydevitt
https://www.etsy.com/uk/people/BryonyDevitt
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Or message me on the form below