As The Ox Plows

“As the Ox Plows“ is a poster zine that utilizes the Boustrophedon method: an ancient technique found in both farming, as well as an early method of reading and writing.

For millennia, plowing a field involved cutting grooved trenches in alternating directions. In a left-to-right and then right-to-left pattern.
This farming technique was first formed 4,000 years ago and derives from the Greek word, Boustrophedon, which translates to “ox-turning”.

Boustrophedon also refers to a type of ancient literacy technology that is found in stone-carved manuscripts. Like an ox plowed field, text that uses this method, starts from left-to-right and then is followed with a line of text that goes from right-to-left*.

Ancient Greek, Etruscan, Safaitic, and Sabaean are a few of the languages that used Boustrophedon. Early advanced civilizations were highly ambidextrous - which catered well to this method of reading and writing.
Some could argue that the Boustrophedon technique may be more efficient because one doesn’t start a line from one margin line - you start from both.

* Boustrophedon was also practiced vertically with text going up and down.

The following 25 artists are a part of this project:
 ASMA
(Matias Armendaris & Hanya Beliá)
Annabell P. Lee
Anthony Coleman
Barry Elkanick 
Chioma Ebinama
Claire Milbrath
Elliot Camarra 
Emma Kohlmann
Ethan Skaates 
Javier Ramirez
Justine Rivas
Justus Kempthorne
Kevin McNamee-Tweed
Michael Childress
Mosie Romney
Nadair Asghari
Naomi Romm
Praise Fuller
Santiago Licata
Simone Bodmer Turner
Suzanna Zak
Tara Castellano 
Ursula Macussen
Vinnie Smith