The Hebrew Alphabet (Between Two Worlds)

This book contains twenty-two collages by Pavel Holeka (1945), each accompanied by a short poetic text by the author that forms an organic complement to what the variously sized Hebrew letters scattered across the surface of the collages say and to the accompanying human figures and various animals and objects of everyday use presented. They have an obvious symbolism, but they are difficult to decode. Viewers are consequently left with enough room to apply their own approach, sense of perception, and emotions. The suggestive images are merely aids with which to open the doors leading into the chambers where the most profound mystery resides – the meaning of human existence. The world of Holeka’s collages in a complex way captures the horizontal fatality of life and its vertical inflections. Several characteristic features are used to intimate the meaning concealed within each individual sharply cut letter, the intrinsic substance and causal interconnectedness of which is then wholly and unexpectedly made manifest, as though suddenly illuminated in bright light.
This engaging and flawlessly structured philosophical-poetic collection also possesses what in an international context are some very special qualities. The multiple meanings, numerical significance, and remarkable cohesiveness of the twenty-two letters in the Hebrew alphabet are amplified by the singular aesthetic charge of their expression in calligraphic form. This outstanding series of collages by Pavel Holeka includes an afterword by Gustav Erhart, who captures the significance of this unique piece of artistic-poetic work in the words ‘Look, and you shall be given to see!’