COMPETITION PROJECT 

Bookplate for Book Collection of Czesław Miłosz 

 

This is a proposal of a bookplate for Czesław Miłosz's book collection. This personal collection consists of 8000 pieces and was donated to the National Library of Poland. 

 

As it's a personal collection of the poet I aimed at reflecting Miłosz's attitude towards books. Inspiration for this project came from Miłosz's poem 'But books'. Written in 1981 it can be described as a psalm to books - to Miłosz books are immortal, eternal - kingdoms will be falling apart, people will be fading away but they will remain for ever. 

 

I decided that my project's main goal is to portray books as eternal - I achieved this with the illustration of the hourglass - it's jammed and the sand of time cannot run through. 

 

The poet used many beautiful comparisons to describe books better - two of them were the scent of jasmine and chestnuts. From all the other objects mentioned I chose these as they resonated with me the most - they are  so familiar; memories from childhood as well as seasonal elements of each year in Poland.