Dahlia Elsayed thinks of the current exhibition of her paintings at the New Jersey State Museum in Trenton as similar to a short-story collection. Titled “Dahlia Elsayed: Hither and Yon,” it culls a decade’s worth of work, “and each has its own beginning, middle and end,” she said, describing them as “distinct narratives.”
Those familiar with Ms. Elsayed’s work probably will not find her use of a literary analogy unusual. All her pieces rely on text to put their points across.
“I’ve always been a writer. The written word always comes first when I’m doing a painting,” Ms. Elsayed, 44, of Palisades Park, said during a recent walk-through of the exhibition, which runs through Feb. 2. “For me, the language becomes the artwork.”
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