Works of art: Three out of the six exclusive editions of dictionaries published by MCBooks JSC will be auctioned for charity this Sunday in HCM City. – VNS Photo courtesy of MCBooks

HCM CITY — Three out of six exclusive editions of dictionaries published by MCBooks JSC will be auctioned for charity this Sunday in HCM City.

“It took our painters 200 hours and our editors two months. The project aims to share love and luck,” said Nguyễn Văn Cường, director of MCBooks.

Printed in 2014 in 10,000 copies and reprinted three times, the commercial edition of the 350,000-word English-Vietnamese Dictionary is considered to be one of the best-selling dictionaries on Việt Nam’s No 1 online book website, Tiki.vn

“Last year, the company convinced five Vietnamese leading contemporary painters to join the project, which connects knowledge and painting,” Cường added.

The painters are Thành Chương, Đặng Xuân Hòa, Phạm An Hải, Phan Cẩm Thượng, and Phạm Bình Chương.

They each painted a dictionary cover. Phan Cẩm Thượng drew the Văn Hóa Dân Gian (Folk Culture), Phạm Bình Chương The Phố Cổ Hà Nội (Hà Nội Ancient Town), Phạm An Hải The Ngân Hà (Galaxy), Đặng Xuân Hòa The Con Rồng Châu Á (Asian Dragon), and Thành Chương two dictionaries named Ánh Nguyệt (Moonlight, One in Red, One in Black).

Each dictionary has four pages of sketches by a painter and 24 pages that display their special works.

The six boxes for the dictionaries are also artworks done by leading Vietnamese artisans.

“MCBooks chose to print the dictionaries on a special paper imported from Italy that will last for 500 years,” Chương said.

The six dictionaries were exhibited at Nguyễn Văn Bình Book Street on March 20, and were moved to the gate of the HCM City Book Expo at Lê Văn Tám on Monday.

MCBooks will gift one dictionary to Hà Nội National Library, one to HCM City National Library, and keep one to exhibit at the company.

The other three will be auctioned at the Pullman Saigon Centre on March 27 from 6-9pm.

All proceeds will go directly to the Cặp Lá Yêu Thương charity programme of VNT24, to help disadvantaged children attend school. — VNS