In 2006, serendipity led two former political exiles, photographer Yuri Dojc and documentary producer Katya Krausova, to an abandoned Jewish school in their homeland, Slovakia. Abandoned since 1942, when all its students had been deported to concentration camps, Dojc photographed the building and disintegrating school books within it. These photographs were the beginning of Last Folio, an international travelling exhibition and documentary film.
In commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the end of World War Two, Dojc and Krausova have released a book, Last Folio: A Photographic Memory, that documents their exploration into Slovakia’s pre-war Jewish culture.
Designed by Pentagram Berlin, the book showcases photographs and insights into the Last Folio journey. As Dojc’s photographs treat each object as a survivor, the book is a monument to European remembrance.
The book’s cover uses sovereign embossed text in a style similar to a grave stone. The cover is a saturated purple, inspired by some of the school books featured in Dojc’s photo on the dust jacket.
Each photograph is given its own space and separate page. The images are accompanied by English and German text that is separated by a thin vertical line.
The book follows Last Folio – Traces of Jewish Life in Slovakia, a travelling exhibition of Dojc's photographs, which was designed by Pentagram.
