Genealogy of printed in Beirut · Jabbour Douaihy in conversation with Hussein Nasser Eddin

In his novel, Printed In Beirut (2016), Douaihy tells the story of Farid Abou Cha’r who comes to Beirut in hopes of publishing his book, only to face constant rejection by the publishers of the day. After taking a menial job at an old printing house, Cha’r’s life takes a turn when his boss’ wife secretly prints one copy of his manuscript. Later, it was discovered that the manuscript was printed on the same paper that was used to make counterfeit money by the print shop. In this conversation with Douaihy, artist Hussein Nasser Eddine prompts questions on the genealogy of the research process and the stories behind the complex weaving of events.

Jabbour Douaihy (b. 1949, Zgharta) holds a PhD degree in comparative literature from the Sorbonne and works as a professor of French literature at the Lebanese university. He has published seven works of fiction and was shortlisted for ipaf in 2012. printed in Beirut, 2016 was published by Al Saqi books and now translated into French and English editions.

Hussein Nasser Eddine (1993, Beirut, Lebanon) lives and works in Beirut. He holds a bachelor’s degree in fine arts in graphic design from the American University of Beirut. His works in video, photography, image-making and writing deal with different ideas including fragility, poetics of images, personal and collective memory, history and mythology. His interdisciplinary research focuses on the ability of images to create poetic spaces and atmospheres. His work often originates from personal observations and narratives, as well as their origins in collective history. It then develops into works that comment and draw relations between the daily and the mythological. This process delineates his attempt to create works which evoke meanings that remain suspended between the image and its description, between definition and approximation.