Commissioned by a lawyer to display in her office, this piece features the first three words from a verse from Deuteronomy, which translates to “Justice, justice you shall pursue, that you may live, and inherit the land which the Lord your God gave you” (Deuteronomy 16:18) The first three words, “Tzedek Tzedek Tirdof”, can also be understood to be the imperative “pursue justice!”. In this papercut, I’ve organically embedded that Hebrew command in a tree/scales of justice, and the English lives on the two scales. In a circle around is this text from Pirkei Avot 1:18, “[Rabbi Shimon ben] Gamliel says: On three things the world stands: on justice, on truth and on peace,” which is a nice companion to the Deuteronomic command to pursue justice.
The large Hebrew letters are inspired by the letters used by Gad Almalia in this “tree of life” piece, and the letters I used in the Pirke Avot text are Baruch Sienna’s “Orange” font.