An engraved invitation in the Copperplate style.

For this ketubah I suggested developing a piece based upon my recent research with original Hebrew manuscripts in England. It would encompass the ever-resonant Hebrew letter itself, with its reference to the vital, well-rooted tradition of the hand in Jewish text production: the Torah, historic Talmud and its ongoing expression (albeit translated into type!) through commentary and erudition. As if to emphasize its significance further, our choice of decoration was also from the manuscript tradition: a ‘word panel’, the embellished first word of a text, analogous to the illuminated ‘versal’ of our Roman manuscript heritage. The text was also designed to refer more specifically to marriage, with a chuppah (traditional marriage canopy) subtly employed to provide ‘page’ structure.

In this ketubah my clients wished to blend elements from the three distinctive traditions—Jewish, Quaker and Buddhist—of their backgrounds. In fulfilling this desire we brought together a Hebrew quote, the preface to the ketubah formulary, the Quaker formulary and witnessing, and the Chinese character for love. We also incorporated the popular Hebrew text, “I am to my beloved as my beloved is to me”, from The Song of Songs, by ‘writing’ this line, in tiny letters, to serve as signature lines for both bride and groom. By doing so we made reference to two unique features of the Hebrew manuscript tradition: 1) ‘micrography’: tiny writing used to ‘draw’ ornamental figures for the embellishment of texts, and 2) ‘dilation’: the scribal technique of extending horizontal strokes for the justification of texts. My client’s desire for the whole piece to have a sense of movement allowed me to experiment with the placement of the lines of text, as well as with the ‘linearity’ of the flowers, their stems and tendrils. It is always a wonderful challenge for me, as a calligrapher, to create harmony between the Roman and Hebrew styles, and to give life and contemporary expression to these traditional alphabets.

Hebramaic: Simplicity need not be simple! Here, the choice of a square format, with its connotations of a foundation, balance and solidity, acknowledge the earnest, serious side of a marriage agreement. This mood, however, is leavened by numerous subtle, intriguing details of text design. First, the choice of style is not traditional; rather, it is a postmodern hybrid mixing the notably square, formal Hebrew with its ancient, cursive ancestor, Aramaic. (I designed this style which I call Hebramaic, see Publications.) Second, there is a ‘play’ with symmetry to create balance: only the last three lines observe page symmetry while the above text adheres loosely to a left margin with ragged right. There is also uncommon spatial symmetry between the top and bottom 3 lines of text; these portions have greater distance between their lines, by the same amount, than the text. Unlike the text body, these triads each record the bride’s and groom’s full names. For additional ‘graphic decoration’ we recognized the relative importance of words by varying their size and weight.

This piece displays some of the intricacy and complexity a ketubah may express, visually as well as symbolically. Texts: a conservative formulary upholds tradition in the central text block, solid and justified, while personal vows in the adjacent columns, with their ragged right margins, relate to it with seemingly conversational brio. Symbolically, these vows hold the position reserved for commentary, thus illustrating the compatibility of creativity and responsiveness with tradition. In this ketubah the word panels act visually to hold the text in place, to balance the weight and activity of the border; and, symbolically as word panels, they represent beginning points which serve to launch the action, conventionally, of reading, but placed in the four corners of a ketubah text may be said to represent a cornerstone for marriage. The chosen words are certainly worthy: love, honor/respect, loving-kindness and social justice. As inspiration for the border design my clients presented me with 20 pages of downloaded Turkish tile designs. They asked me to incorporate images of their individual and common interests; to accomplish this, I created vignettes placing their personal interests in the right and left bands with their shared ones top and bottom.

With its contoured triangular apex this ketubah echoes a historical style motif; a similar shape is occasionally found, inverted, at the document’s foot. The Hebrew and English texts are written with bold strokes to visually balance the color-saturated border paneling; and, in this work, they are designed to face, or ‘mirror’, one another. Since the Hebrew text is generally shorter than the English, fitting the texts within the same text area is a scribal challenge. The Lotus and Poppy were chosen for their spiritual and personal significance.

This couple planned to marry in February and wanted a simple document to express their vows. For its adornment they chose a single blossoming branch, for its page design they requested ample visual space, both of which signified promise and openness to them.