Bengal Arts Programme’s ‘Subtext’ featured art books, text-based art and a temporary reading room which started on February 4. The display of almost 150 books on art is the heart of the event while video, drawing and installation works by nine artists highlight the theme of perceiving texts as forms of art and beyond their meaning.

The participating artists were Abir Shome, Bishwajit Goswami, Emran Sohel, Marzia Farhana, Mustafa Zaman, Palash Bhattacharjee, Razib Datta, Wakilur Rahman and Zihan Karim. Books from across the world covering topics like history, biography, theories, manifestos etc. that have been inspiring the artists for ages were on display at ‘Subtext’.

Curator of the show Tanzim Wahab explains, ‘Subtext is a culmination of texts, symbols and images to re-explore the relationship of text and image. A white cube is temporarily transformed into a reading room with an overlap between text-based art and art-based-text. It is an imaginary library formed for the artists and art audience to test the symbiosis of form and meaning.’

The show was open to all and continued till 24^th February, every day from 11 AM to 7 PM at Abdur Razzaq Bidyapeeth, house 60, road 7/A, Dhanmondi.