Jewish Book Month
Gaon Books Proudly Presents
The Power of the Hebrew Alphabet by Gloria Abella Ballen is a new book, a fusion between mysticism, art, and Jewish spiritual traditions. Abella Ballen leads the viewer through the labyrinth of the twenty-two letters that changed the world. The letters brought us the stories of Abraham, Moses, and the Ten Commandments. The adventures of David and his songs came to us on the wings of these twenty-two letters, as did the wisdom and poetry of Solomon. The lyrical images of Abella Ballen spread across the pages in full color filled with insight into religious truths drawn from the well of Jewish traditions.
The Hebrew letters, their shapes and colors give enlightenment and wisdom. Otiyot Mach’kimot. In Jewish mysticism they are also the building blocks of the universe. Enjoy the flight of consciousness this glorious book affords you.
--Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi
ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal
The melodious art of Gloria Abella Ballen, who also dreams of flying alphabets, fixes the Hebrew letters in time. Suddenly, we appreciate not only the texts they deliver but the texture they are made of.
--Ilan Stavans
Lewis-Sebring Professor in Latin American and Latino Culture
Amherst College
Gloria Abella Ballen is a student of the Hebrew aleph bet, doing research on the Sephardic illuminated manuscripts at the British Museum and the Bodleian Library, Oxford, as well as studying the Zohar and contemporary works such as The Alphabet of Creation by Ben Shahn and The Book of Letters by Rabbi Lawrence Kushner.
Prof. Abella Ballen has been visiting lecturer on Jewish art, Jewish illuminated manuscripts, and her own work from the Mishkan Omanim, Herzliya, Israel to the University of Essex and the Camberwell School of Art in the U.K. and University of Xinjiang in China among others. She has exhibited at Christie’s in London and Louis Stern in Los Angeles, from the Carrillo Gil Museum in Mexico City to the Bellevue Art Museum in Seattle. In addition to her graduate degree in art from SUNY-Buffalo, she did specialized work with Larry Rivers and John Cage.
Abella Ballen has taught at the University of the Andes in Bogota and Inter American University in Puerto Rico. She is of a Sephardic family, born in South America. She has exhibited in the United States, Israel, Japan, Colombia, Mexico and England and received awards for her work from the Latin American Graphics Biennial, Pan American Graphic Arts, UNESCO and National Endowment for the Arts and others. Her art is in museum, corporate and private collections, from Colombia (National Museum) to the United States (Fort Lauderdale Museum of Art, Occidental Petroleum, Mayo Clinic, et.al.) and Canada (Royal Bank of Canada).
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