Kaph Books

Founded in 2016, Kaph is a publishing house based in Beirut, Lebanon, specialized in quality art books—photography, fine arts—on Middle-Eastern artists. It takes its name from the letter Kaph which can be found in many Semitic abjads, including Phoenician and Aramaic (it gave birth to the Greek Kappa and to the Latin K). The word Kaph stands for the palm of the hand in modern Arabic and Hebrew. It represents an open hand, a bridge between cultures. Each book is a unique and personal creation testifying to the constructive collaboration between the respective partners—with consistently high technical and design quality.
 
Beirut
 
81 titles
 
And All That Is In Between - Islamic Arts Biennale 2025
2025
English edition
forthcoming
Catalogue of the 2025 Islamic Arts Biennale, combining ancient heritage and contemporary art.
Noor\'s Heroes - Umm Kulthum
2025
English edition
forthcoming
Published in the Noor's Heroes children's book series that celebrates inspiring figures from the Arab world, this story introduces the legendary Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum.
Noor\'s Heroes - Mohamed Salah
2025
English edition
forthcoming
Published in the Noor's Heroes children's book series that celebrates inspiring figures from the Arab world, this book traces the rise of Mohamed Salah, the Egyptian footballer who went from playing on dusty village fields to scoring for the world's biggest clubs.
Noor\'s Heroes - Mahmoud Darwish
2025
English edition
forthcoming
In this moving story, published in the Noor's Heroes children's book series that celebrates inspiring figures from the Arab world, young readers follow Mahmoud Darwish, the celebrated Palestinian poet whose words became a voice for the displaced.
Noor\'s Heroes - Saloua Raouda Choucair
2025
English edition
forthcoming
Published in the Noor's Heroes children's book series that celebrates inspiring figures from the Arab world, this volume explores the creative life of Saloua Raouda Choucair, a pioneering Lebanese artist who challenged norms through geometry, abstraction, and sculpture.
Mamluks - Legacy of an Empire
2025
English edition
forthcoming
This volume traces the history and the political, cultural, and artistic legacy of the Mamluk Sultanate (1250–1517), one of the great powers of the medieval world, known both for its formidable military force and its flourishing artistic production.
Brigitte Caland - Writing in the work of Huguette Caland
2025
English edition
forthcoming
An exploration of the role of writing in the artistic practice of Huguette Caland (1931-2019).
 Civil Architecture - Two Thousand Years of Non-Urban History
2025
bilingual edition (English / Arabic)
forthcoming
Two Thousand Years of Non-Urban History revisits the founding principles of architectural and landscape discourse in the Arabian Peninsula. The publication explores instances of pre-oil planning, ranging from desert kites to fish traps and water channels, upending the toolset for thinking through architecture's relationship to its context.
Mamlouks - L\'héritage d\'un empire
2025
French edition
forthcoming
This volume traces the history and the political, cultural, and artistic legacy of the Mamluk Sultanate (1250–1517), one of the great powers of the medieval world, known both for its formidable military force and its flourishing artistic production.
Brigitte Caland - L\'écriture dans l\'œuvre d\'Huguette Caland
2025
French edition
forthcoming
An exploration of the role of writing in the artistic practice of Huguette Caland (also available in English edition).
As the Sun Appears from Beyond - Twenty Years of the Al Burda Award
2025
bilingual edition (English / Arabic)
An exploration of artistic expression rooted in the diverse traditions of Islamic art and culture.
The Land Remembers (box set)
2025
bilingual edition (English / Arabic)
This publication is a dynamic archive, the legacy of The Land Remembers, the Lebanese National Pavilion at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. Harnessing local knowledge, it responds with urgency to the intentional destruction of nature and societies in Lebanon.
Abboudy Mallah - The Puppeteer - A Screenplay by Abboudy Mallah
2025
bilingual edition (English / Arabic)
The screenplay for the Lebanese film written by Abboudy Mallah.
Pressure Cooker recipes - An architectural cookbook
2025
bilingual edition (English / Arabic)
An architectural cookbook featuring recipes that range from the technical to the fictional to the historic (official catalog of the National Pavilion of United Arab Emirates at La Biennale di Venezia).
Rooted Transience - Affiliated Event – AlMussala Prize
2025
bilingual edition (English / Arabic)
A collection of reflections on various architectural practices from the Arab world and beyond, on the occasion of the first AlMusalla Prize (2025 edition), an international architectural competition awarded for the design of a musalla in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Madness of the Anthropocene
2025
bilingual edition (English / Arabic)
This book brings together artists and writers who use image-making and text as means to understand ecological change. By presenting their work here, including ongoing projects and commissioned pieces, the publication conveys knowledge within attentive proximity to the contributor's own definitions of the subject and their governance of observation and analysis of global crises in the age of the Anthropocene.
Mohammed Alresayes - Between Forms
2025
bilingual edition (English / Arabic)
A selection of works by the Saudi artist that center on mud-brick houses, their central courtyards, and distinctive elements—drawing on a personal archive of memory and place—as well as scenes of traditional Bedouin life.
Khaleel Hassan Khaleel - The Whisper of Dreams
2025
bilingual edition (English / Arabic)
A selection of paintings, drawings, and preparatory works by the Saudi artist that invite into a dreamlike realm where reality and imagination blur.
Materiae Palimpsest - National Pavilion of the Kingdom of Morocco – 19th International Architecture Exhibition
2025
trilingual edition (English / Arabic / French) / English belly band
This book accompanies the éponymous exhibition exhibition of the Moroccan Pavilion at the 19th Venice Biennale, marking its inaugural participation. Far more than a simple presentation of the scenographic installation, it provides insights into the Pavilion's central theme: construction techniques using local materials.
Materiae Palimpsest - Pavillon national du Royaume du Maroc – 19e exposition internationale d\'architecture
2025
trilingual edition (English / Arabic / French) / French belly band
This book accompanies the éponymous exhibition exhibition of the Moroccan Pavilion at the 19th Venice Biennale, marking its inaugural participation. Far more than a simple presentation of the scenographic installation, it provides insights into the Pavilion's central theme: construction techniques using local materials.
Jamil Molaeb - Molaeb
2025
bilingual edition (English / Arabic)
This inaugural retrospective volume unveils the œuvre of Lebanese artist Jamil Molaeb (b. 1948) and marks a seminal moment in the appreciation of his artistic legacy.
Manal AlDowayan - Oasis of Stories - Manal AlDowayan and the people of AlUla
2025
bilingual edition (English / Arabic)
Over 700 drawings and full documentation of the major participatory Land art installation conceived by the Saudi artist for “Valley of the Arts”.
Echoing the Land
2024
bilingual edition (English / Arabic)
Catalog of an exhibition that presents the discourse and developments in the arts of Saudi Arabia that took place between 1959 and the 1980s, highlighting a group of Saudi artists who contributed to shaping the identity of the local art movement.
Taha Alsabban - Muse\'s Reverie
2024
bilingual edition (English / Arabic)
An overview of the pictorial work of a leading figure on the Saudi art scene.
Yousef Jaha - Yearning for Rain
2024
bilingual edition (English / Arabic)
An overview of the pictorial work of a leading figure on the Saudi art scene.
The Silent Age of Singularity
2024
bilingual edition (English / Arabic)
A catalogue that features a group of 20 artists from Saudi Arabia, the Middle East, the Maghreb and the international scene and explores the profound changes of a period marked by the presence of technology, the post internet era.
Resurgent Nahda - Arab Exhibitions in 1930s Jerusalem
2024
bilingual edition (English / Arabic)
The cultural and political legacies of the the 1933 and 1934 Arab Exhibitions in Jerusalem.
Fouad Elkoury - Cinema Cairo Palace - A Journey into Egyptian Cinema – 1985-1996
2024
bilingual edition (English / Arabic)
The images shot on Egyptian film sets by prominent photographer Fouad ElKoury over more than a decade capture the essence of Arab cinema.
Dusk - Anthology – Contemporary Lebanese Women Poets
2024
trilingual edition (English / Arabic / French)
currently out of stock
A lyrical portrait of Lebanon through the poetry of 60 native women authors.
Mudun - Short stories from the Arab world
2024
texts in English and Arabic
Published on the occasion of Mudun Short Story Prize, an international competition that pays tribute to cities around the Arab world which was launched by the Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah (UAE), Mudun: Stories from Arab Cities brings together the 19 stories—10 in Arabic and nine in English—that were shortlisted for the prize, including the winning submissions.
After Rain - Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale 2024
2024
bilingual edition (English / Arabic)
The catalog for 2024 Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale, under the artistic direction of Ute Meta Bauer, featuring some one hundred artists of different generations: a testament of a unique moment within a changing Saudi Arabian cultural ecosystem.
Abdullah Al Saadi - Sites of Memory, Sites of Amnesia
2024
English edition
Accompanying Abdullah Al Saadi's eponymous solo exhibition at the National Pavilion UAE at the 60th International Venice Biennale, this publication invites an immersion into the artist's singularly subjective universe.
Abdullah Al Saadi - Sometimes you have to go a long way to come back a short distance
2024
English edition
A comprehensive overview of the Emirati artist's practice, with numerous archive documents.
Myrna Ayad - Alcove - Intimate Essays on Arab Modernist Artists
2024
English edition
Spanning a pivotal time in Arab art, from the 1950s through to the 1980s, this book celebrates the lives, careers, and personas of some of the region's pioneering artists (from Huguette Caland to Hamed Nada and Etel Adnan) and features archival material, images of artworks as well as of the artists themselves.
Charif Majdalani - L\'Art et son Lieu - Essai sur les trente ans de la Galerie Janine Rubeiz
2024
French edition
The story of the Galerie Janine Rubeiz, a major venue on Beirut's cultural and artistic scene.
In Plain Sight - Scenes from Aridly Abundant Landscapes
2023
English edition
What architectural possibilities can emerge when we reimagine arid landscapes as spaces of abundance? (a collective book conceived as a travelogue that challenges preconceptions around aridity: the official publication of UAE's National Pavilion at Venise Biennale of Architecture).
Monumental Shadows - On museums, memory and the making of history
2023
bilingual edition (English / Arabic)
A critical investigation into the material heritage and entangled histories of Western encyclopedic museums.
Future Perfect - Catastrophe and Redemption in the Contemporary
2023
bilingual edition (English / Arabic)
An artistic and reflexive project around the notion of the "future perfect", the passage of time, individual and collective responsibility in the current cultural and political ecosystem, and future perspectives and goals.
On Foraging - Food knowledge and Environmental Imaginaries in the UAE\'s landscape
2023
bilingual edition (English / Arabic)
Transformative solutions for food insecurity in the UAE over the past 50 years.
Bollywood Superstars - A Short Story of Indian Cinema
2022
English edition
An exploration of the history of Indian cinema from its origins in the late 19th century to the present day: Bollywood Superstars presents the artistic and civilizational richness of the Indian subcontinent (beyond the international success of Bollywood), through its long tradition of image making, and the diversity of the Indian film industry, now the largest in the world.
Nayla Romanos Iliya - The Phoenician Alphabet
2022
English edition
(last copies available!)
Publication dedicated to Lebanese artist Nayla Romanos Iliya's "Small Characters" sculptures, inspired by and named after each of the 22 letters of the Phoenician Alphabet.
Bollywood Superstars - Histoire d\'un cinéma indien
2022
French edition
An exploration of the history of Indian cinema from its origins in the late 19th century to the present day (also available in English).
Histoires de Papiers
2022
French edition
"Stories of Paper" traces the history of paper as a thousand-year-old material used from antiquity to the present day, and provides an original perspective on the history of graphic arts.
Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim - Between Sunrise and Sunset - Works 1986-2022
2022
English edition
Published on the occasion of the 59th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, in 2022, this retrospective monograph is the official catalog of the National Pavilion of the United Arab Emirates, which has chosen the Emirati artist Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim to represent them.
Beyrouth - Les temps du design
2022
French edition
The first retrospective on design in Lebanon, from the 1920s until today, includes works by over 50 designers, uncovering this major design scene in the Middle-East.
Fateh Moudarres - Hiwar - Sense and Intuition
2022
English edition
A conversation between acclaimed Syrian artist Fateh Moudaress (1922-1999) and Arab poet Adonis, finally translated from Arabic to English, with 30 never seen before paintings and drawings by Fateh Moudaress.
Scripts and Calligraphy - A Timeless Journey
2021
English edition
The history of Arabic calligraphy.
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