We are all migrants: Letters from America in the late 19th century

From the mid-19th century to the outbreak of the Great War, 2.5 million inhabitants of the partitioned Poland left for the United States. In an effort to combat the wave of mass emigration, czarist authorities decided to “arrest” the letters sent by Poles overseas to their families. Thus, most of those epistles never reached their addressees. This volume, offering a selection of texts and reportages describing that phenomenon both in historical and contemporary contexts, constitutes a worthwhile complement and addendum to the exhibition under the same title.

One the one hand, the simple and austere form of the books echoes the realities that emigrants at the time had to confront. On the other, the gold appearing on its spine metaphorically denotes the striving for a better tomorrow, promised by the “gold-bearing” America, while the typography has been inspired by the contemporary printed material. Also, throughout the volume, the reader will see elliptical forms which draw upon postmarks. The book comprises four parts, each of which is distinguished by a slightly different layout and a letter which describes it. The last part includes a photographic account of the exhibition, held in 2016 at the ZAMEK Culture Centre in Poznań.

See the complete project here

* Text and images taken from Marcin Markowski's Behance account