Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Alphabet of Spiritual Emptiness. Books on Books #10.






Alphabet of Spiritual Emptiness. Books on Books #10. Photographs by Zdenek Tmej. Essays by Vladimir Birgus, Alexandra Urbanova, Jeffrey Ladd. errata editions, 2011. 172 pp., illustrated throughout, 9,5x7".

I really like errata editions' books on books-series and have previously featured this and this book from the series.


Book description:

" 'Zdenek Tmej's Abeceda Dusevniho Prazdna' ('The Alphabet of Spiritual Emptiness') published in 1946 enables a rare look, from a captive's perspective, inside a Nazi forced labor camp in Breslau, Poland during World War II.

It is remarkable that Tmej, a Czech citizen made to work for the Nazi war effort for three years, was allowed to photograph at all, let alone describe the psychological stasis of his experience with the poetic voice that these portraits and still-lifes convey.

Books on Books #10 presents every page spread from this extremely rare and fragile document including the original texts by Alexandra Urbanova translated for the first time into English."

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