An Leabhar Mor / The Great Book of Gaelic brings together the work of more than 200 poets, visual artists and calligraphers from Scotland and Ireland to create a major contemporary artwork in the form of a visual anthology.

The 100 Gaelic poems have been nominated by leading poets and writers such as Seamus Heaney, Hamish Henderson and Alistair Macleod as well as the contributing poets themselves. The selection features work from almost every century from the 6th to the 21st and includes the earliest Gaelic poetry in existence. Comedy, tradgedy, love, death, the spiritual and the bawdy are all represented in poems by Sorley MacLean, Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill, Iain Crichton Smith, Michael Davitt, Kevin MacNeil and Cathal Ó Searcaigh.

The 100 visual artists -- 50 from each country -- were commissioned to respond to the poetry in a variety of media. The artists include Alan Davie, Rita Duffy, Will Maclean, Brian Maguire, Francis Walker, Anna Macleod, John Byrne, Shane Cullen, Alastair Gray, Noel Sheridan, Calum Colvin and Alastair MacLennan. A small team of calligraphers and typographer Don Addison worked in collaboration with the artists to integrate the key lines of poetry and the artist¹s images.

The resulting book is an extraordinary celebration in words and pictures of gaelic culture from the earliest times to the present day.

Published by Canongate Books, Edinburgh * New York, 321 pp ISBN 1 84195 250 8

...............................            $45