Arab Visual Art, the exhibition now up at Gemmayzeh’s 392Rmeil393 Gallery, is comprised of 20-odd word-based, Plexiglas works, whose shapes matter as much as the meaning of the words themselves. “Each work is a poem,” artist Rola Haidar told The Daily Star. “It has a meaning and a philosophy.” Haidar’s work is indebted to classical Arabic calligraphy, obviously, but also European linguistics.

Read More: Arabic Calligraphy Meets Semiotics