Valley of Minhwa - I
2010 / Chosun Minhwa Museum Collection Catalogue
Korean-to-English Translator & Design Consultant
This catalogue was commissioned to commemorate the tenth year anniversary of the Chosun Minhwa Museum, Korea's first museum specializing in Korean folk art. As the 1st volume of a series that covers the most exquisite and cherished pieces of the museum's permanent collection, this 331-page descriptive catalogue features full color plates of 70 select works - many of which are major landmark pieces - that portray classic minhwa themes such as hwajodo (flower-and-bird painting), kkachihorang-i (tiger-and-magpie painting), and samgukjiyeonuido (romance of the three kingdoms). Works are divided by genre into seven chapters, each of which begins with an essay overviewing the genre by a respected expert in the field. The catalogue opens with a preface by the museum's founder & director and a brief history of the museum, and concludes with a eight-part research paper titled "The Imaginative Power of Minhwa" by renowned minhwa expert and Kyeongju University professor Chung Byung-mo.
All Korean text is accompanied by side-by-side English translations. In translation, particular attention was paid to capturing the rhythm and nuance of the detailed descriptions, and communicating the content and meaning as clearly and eloquently as possible while still retaining the poetic, lyrical quality of the prose.
