Blending ancient symbols with contemporary collage, artist Jackie Milad reimagines cultural identity and personal mythology in Shabtis Gather. This richly layered new book was designed by Raquel Castedo and published by the artist in partnership with BmoreArt. The volume traces Milad’s vibrant practice through paintings, drawings, and mixed-media works that merge her Egyptian and Honduran heritage with the language of pop culture and abstraction.

Shabtis Gather presents an in-depth visual narrative of Milad’s recent work alongside essays, studio views, and archival materials that illuminate her evolving process. The book’s design reflects the rhythmic and cumulative nature of Milad’s compositions—boldly combining saturated color fields, overlapping textures, and fragments of text that echo the artist’s visual vocabulary.

Structured as a sequence of visual conversations, the publication invites readers to explore the relationships between repetition, ritual, and storytelling that define Milad’s art. Castedo’s design approach emphasizes both clarity and exuberance, balancing scholarly essays with rich image sequences that highlight Milad’s layered mark-making and material experimentation.

Credits:
Book Design and Editorial Production by Raquel Castedo Studio [Creative Director: Raquel Castedo, Design Assistant: Thaís Franco]
Photography by © Vivian Marie Doering (collage tapestries and shabti sculptures), © Saskia Kahn (pages 194–195)
Copyedited by Chelsea Lemon Fetzer and Cara Ober
Proofreading by Rebecca Juliette, Inés Sanchez de Lozada, Samia Bzioui
Arabic Translation by Hicham Habibi
Printed by Ipsis