Saif Azzuz: Keet Hegehlpa’ (the water is rising) — PREORDER
Published by Sming Sming Books
PREORDER — SHIPS LATE MAY
ISBN 978-1-953189-24-0
May 2026, English, 9 x 12 in., 160 pages, full color, softcover
Edition of 400
Design: Sming Sming Books
Saif Azzuz (b. 1987; lives and works in Pacifica, California) is a Libyan-Yurok artist who looks to the land in a moment marked by fleeting ecologies and environmental catastrophe. Azzuz’s artwork silhouettes native plants, waterways, and animals. Interested in material history and cultural and ecological inheritance, Azzuz uses metal, wood, paint, and gathered materials to make portraits of the land, positioning them as a relative to be nurtured and protected rather than something to be conquered. Through these gestures, Azzuz reveals the interconnectedness of all living systems and the care needed to sustain them.
Keet Hegehlpa’ (the water is rising) brings together Azzuz’s artwork and installation images made over the course of 2019–2026. The book spans the artist’s work in painting, sculpture, drawing, mixed-media installation, and collaborative artmaking practices and features original writing by Sháńdíín Brown (Diné), Erika Mei Chua Holum, Kristin Delzell, Julian Markussen (Yurok/Diné), and Laura Phipps.
Keet Hegehlpa’ (the water is rising) is co-edited by Erika Mei Chua Holum, Kathryn Cua, and Kristin Delzell, and is made possible through the support of Anthony Meier Gallery.