The Guild thrilled to invite you to our upcoming exhibition Enlightenment from an Unlikely Envelope: Archives of Adil Jussawalla, curated by Deeptha Achar and Chithra K. S. The exhibition previews on Saturday, 3 May 2025, inaugurated by notable author, translator and Adil Jussawalla's long-time friend, Jerry Pinto.

Drawing from the archives of the poet and photographer, Adil Jussawalla, this exhibition showcases a small selection of his collection of materials—texts, manuscripts, scrapbooks, notes, lists, photographs, books, newspaper clippings, poems, plants, among other things—that have been shaped by the contours of his personal life. Nevertheless these archival exhibits that offer a glimpse into his individual world also suggest entry points into an historical time. As a young person, Jussawalla could never be found without a camera slung on his shoulder. The show explores the intimate links between his photographic practice, his life in writing, and the milieu that he inhabited. Intimately bound to Bombay/Mumbai in particular, many of these works can be read as a reflection on the city’s literary and artistic landscape as it evolved from the 1970s.

The works featured here do not merely stand as a testimony to the life and legacy of this phenomenal writer, they also give clues to his creative process and revisit the contexts of his work, not through the frames of a strict chronology, but through a reiteration of the fragmentary nature of the archive itself.

Adil Jussawalla is an Indian poet and editor. One of the most influential figures in Indian poetry, Jussawalla has published poetry in Land’s End (1962), Missing Person (1976), Trying To Say Goodbye (2011), Shorelines (2020), and Earth: Poems for Veronik (2023). Anthologies of his prose writing include Maps for a Mortal Moon (2014) and I Dreamt a Horse Fell from the Sky (2015), The Magic Hand of Chance (2021) and the recent Body of Evidence: in sickness & in health (2024). He has edited a number of important anthologies, including New Writing in India (1974) and Statements: An Anthology of Indian Prose in English (1977, co-edited with Eunice D’Souza). Jussawalla played a significant role in Indian poetry circles from the 1970s as part of the poet's publishing co-operative Clearing House. Jussawalla has also served as literary editor at a number of publications, including The Indian Express, The Express Magazine and Debonair.

Deeptha Achar (PhD) is Professor at the Department of English, Faculty of Arts, Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Gujarat. She has co-edited Towards New Art History: Studies in Indian Art (2003), Discourse, Democracy and Difference: Perspectives on Community, Politics and Culture (2010) and Articulating Resistance: Art and Activism (2012). Her book, Nation Region Modernity: The Art of K Venkatappa, co-edited with Pushpamala N. (2025) has recently been published. She is the series editor of the Different Tales series, a multilanguage series of illustrated children’s books that thematize marginalized childhoods and contexts. Her research interests include visual culture studies and childhood studies.

Chithra K. S. (PhD) is an archivist and art historian based in Vadodara. She has an MA in Museology and a PhD in Art History from the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. She has worked with various private collections archiving, digitizing, researching and curating content for diverse platforms. In the past she has been associated with Jackfruit Research and Design, Asia Art Archive in India and the Museum of Art and Photography. She has also served as a Curatorial Associate at The Guild art gallery. Her research interests include collecting and exhibition histories of indigenous artistic practices and their presence in the archives and museums. She is currently engaged in archiving the historical collection of the Gaekwads of Baroda for the Maharaja Fatehsingh Museum Trust.

For more details, please contact us at:
theguildart@gmail.com, teamattheguild2@gmail.com