2017, 2025

Paper / blind print (embossing), cotton thread, nails.

The object Unread was created for the exhibition Art Books: Memories of the Future within the framework of the European International Book Art Biennale (EIBAB).

Curators: Dr. Dorothea Fleiss (Germany) and Yevheniia Hryhorian (Ukraine).

Brief description:
The impressions were taken from household objects and architectural surfaces of homes belonging to Jewish families of the interwar period of the twentieth century. The book preserves vanishing traces of everyday life and the presence of generations annihilated during the Holocaust in Lviv. The prints were produced through an endlessly repeated ritual, conceived as a gesture that intensifies a culture of remembrance of the mass murder of Jews during the Nazi occupation of the city. The book resists order and wholeness, mirroring the impossibility of a complete comprehension of the past in all its complexity, including the roles assumed by Ukrainians within it.

Books fascinate me in their many incarnations. I am deeply drawn to self-publishing, have had the opportunity to work with it, yet this project felt particularly daunting. The work was realized thanks to the skilled craftsmanship of Olena Bashkina; the paper textures we sought captivate with their quiet, restrained resonance.

The European International Book Art Biennale (EIBAB) was presented in 2025 at the following venues: Dzyga Gallery, Lviv / Avangarden, Kyiv / Zaporizhzhia Center for Contemporary Art.