Objects

The illustration shows the fence of the Auschwitz camp (the wires are not visible, only the poles are shown, with a thick, wavering plume of smoke above them). This is an illustration for Maria Zarębińska-Broniewska's short story "Wspomnienie o Zofii Praussowej" (Memory of Zofia Praussowa), from the edition in the book "Ręka umarłej" (Hand of a Deceased). The illustration was printed full-page on page 99, preceding the short story.

The piece begins with a description of the arrival of a transport from Majdanek in Lublin to the camp. Titular Zofia Praussowa, the ideological communist, was among those brought; the protagonist-narrator of this autobiographical short story has an important conversation with the woman. The dialogue is the main part of the piece.

Mirror reflections in the illustration composition, motifs of a fence, a road, smoke obscuring the sun, as well as the frame of the composition – these are the leitmotivs of the visual project "Ręka umarłej" (Hand of a Dead).

Originally, rectangular cards with intersecting vertical and horizontal lines were attached to the upper and lower parts of the artwork, serving to capture the vertical and horizontal orientation of the composition – traces left on the illustration indicate their presence. The fabric was glued onto a stiffening pad.

The outer edges of the painted frame of the illustration are uneven. This is due to the illustrator not having the need to ensure the closure of the outer elements of the composition, as the publisher's graphic designers were to handle its artistic processing.

Przemysław Kaniecki