Bieszczady's Bestiary
„Bieszczady’s Bestiary”
Master’s degree diploma book
Pracownia Plakatu i Grafiki Wydawniczej
thesis supervisor: prof. Lech Majewski
In 2019 I visited the Bieszczady mountains for the first time. I was instantly mesmerized by their history, nature and landscapes. My interests include local beliefs, so I decided to create “Bieszczady’s Bestiary” about local demonology. The idea was to gather demons and other creatures from Boikos culture in one place. It was particularly challenging as the community doesn’t exist in Poland since WWII.
Photographs in the book depict mountains, forests, cemeteries and orthodox churches in the region. Forgotten places, full of questions and mystery. Pinhole photography allowed me to capture that feeling of gloom and things left unsaid. The text
is accompanied by pieces of embroidery, photos from cemeteries and frottages that were made from boikos gravestones.
is accompanied by pieces of embroidery, photos from cemeteries and frottages that were made from boikos gravestones.
During my diploma year I travelled to Bieszczady four times in total, every season, to gather research. I did a lot of ethnographic work searching for any information regarding boikos’ demonology.
There are no visible creatures in this book. There is only the empty, dark space, where they were, and maybe still are. The illustrations and photos are supposed to stirthe reader’s imagination. The demons are as invisible as the boikos thrown out of their homes.
„Bies Font”
Diploma font for „Bieszczady’s Bestiary”
Mentor: MA Anna Wieluńska
I designed the font „Bies font” specifically for this book. The font references the nature of mountain woods, which is where it’s woodtype character comes from. I made it to seem hewn in wood or stone. It gets it’s variability and irregularity from boikos’ typography, which I studied from old gravestones around Bieszczady mountains. As for the shapes and proportions of certain letters, they are inspired by orthodox church art. The font includes several symbols characteristic of the region, such as the carpatian rosette. I also made the stylistic choice to swap certain letters for their “cyrillicized” analogues.
Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, Graphics, 2021
