Having opened on Nov. 15, the Hundred Best Arabic Posters 2016 series is now on show in Abu Dhabi’s Warehouse 421.

The brainchild of students and academics at the German University of Cairo, the Hundred Best Arabic Posters 2016 exhibition is a compilation of the best poster-based graphic designs in the Arab world. Although some posters are in languages other than Arabic and not all artists live in the region, by and large the exhibit is a presentation of innovative Arabic posters by Arab artists living in the Arab world.

After receiving over 1,200 submissions, the organizers of Hundred Best Arabic Posters 2016 selected the best 100. These posters touched on a variety of subjects, from Egyptian train derailments to Lebanese jazz festivals. By far the most submissions for the project came from Egypt, comprising 36 percent percent of all submissions; the UAE, for example contributed less than one percent of all submissions. 75 designers were exhibited across the show.

This is the second showing of the Hundred Best Arabic Posters 2016 this year. The exhibition was previously displayed in Amman in September as part of Amman Design Week.

The Hundred Best Arabic Posters 2016 exhibit can be explored alongside Warehouse 421’s Community & Critique exhibit from the third cohort of the Salama bint Hamdan Emerging Artists Fellowship program.

Algerian designer Younes Zemmouri re-interpreted classic sculptures through Arabic script. Zemmouri’s use of Arabic calligraphy to cover the nude body of the famous Venus de Milo statue critiques the oft-cited sculpture with text wrapping around the female form in a way that ambiguously suggests a needed addition of modesty and, at the same time, a suffocation of femininity. The poster is part of a set of six posters accepted to Hundred Best Arabic Posters 2016 and part of a larger series by Zemmouri called Shame.

Additionally, Jordanian graphic designer Yousef Abedrabbo’s black and white posters were accepted as part of the display. With a three-poster series accepted, Abedrabbo’s posters show just how beautifully superimposed text can lie in a photograph. Abedrabbo weaves Arabic script gracefully into his pieces, whether it be through window sills or smokestacks. Abedrabbo’s posters are especially interesting when one considers that most of his recent work, in collaboration with Omar Al-Zo'bi at their design studio in Amman’s al-Rjoum neighborhood, has been classic commercial design, as shown on the Eyen Design Company website.