Between the years 2012 and 2024, seven illustrators were invited to work at the Jerusalem Print Workshop: Nino Biniashvili (2012), Michal Bonano (2017), Chen Winner (2017), Gali Sharf (2020-21), Merav Salomon (2021-23), Vered Ganchrow (2023), Judith Asher (2024). Each artist created a series of prints or artist books in their personal style.

The exhibition Cardiac Disruptions contemplates the tension between control and loss of control, between organized culture to erupting wildness. In the artwork, there are recognizable cornerstones of illustrative action – a response to external context, the visual conceptualization of a poetic phrase or a visual story, and a stylistic language rooted in a distinct formal syntax. In the formalist presentation, the common DNA as illustrators is evident as seen in the line that serves as the central means of building figurative imagery and the desire to create readable works.

Printmaking and illustration have a common history. Throughout history, both mediums have shifted from associations of fine art to functional, and back. The two mediums have acted as agents of knowledge and reform, responding to and serving the spirit of the time. Thus, although the works in the Cardiac Disruptions were created at different times during the last twelve years, when presented together now, it is impossible to separate their preoccupation with questions of existential anxiety, identity, belonging, trauma, and pain from the bitter reality around them.