Portfolio · 1997
Homes I Made / A Life in Nine Lines
A title page and nine city sheets trace the homes Zarina made across four decades—from Bangkok to the place she continued to make in New York.
Date1997
SequenceTitle page and nine city sheets
MediumEtching and aquatint with chine collé; selected sheets include watercolor and other intaglio techniques
Sheet20⅞ × 20⅞ in. folded; approximately 20⅞ × 41¾ in. unfolded
Edition20, with two artist’s proofs · signed colophon
The sequence follows homes made through travel, marriage, work, and return: Bangkok; two periods in New Delhi; Paris; Bonn; Tokyo; Los Angeles; Santa Cruz; and New York. The printed titles are part of the work, turning each place into a short autobiographical line.
These photographs show a documented copy laid open so that the full sheet, fold, image, and pasted place label remain visible. The National Gallery of Art independently confirms the portfolio’s ten-part extent, order, techniques, and dimensions. The photographs are not images of the museum’s copy.
Archive sequence
Individual sheets
The portfolio is shown in its established sequence, moving through the cities and houses that shaped Zarina’s life.
Fold and reveal
Before the sheets open
Each city leaf was photographed in both states. Folded, it presents a short autobiographical line; opened, it reveals the mapped or architectural image. Reading the portfolio is therefore also a physical act.
