“Futerał. O urządzaniu mieszkań w PRL-u” book
DESIGN: Agata Szydłowska (book author), Marian Misiak [Threedotstype, rh.plus] (cover design), Robert Oleś (typographical design)
THE MANUFACTURER’S NAME: Wydawnictwo Czarne
must have 2024
The design and culture historian Agata Szydłowska immersed herself in an endless archive of newspapers, movies, photos, and personal documents to answer the intriguing question: How were things organized at home in the People’s Republic of Poland? She brilliantly combines social history with insights into political and cultural change to tell a capturing story of furnishing, home-making, decorating, and organizing in an era of central planning, rationing, and longing.
In her innovative book, she shows home as one of the central objects of concern, care, aspiration, pride, snobbery, and ingenuity of generations of Polish women and men. And just as for Walter Benjamin home was the étui of the private individual’, so for Szydłowska it is one of the keys to understanding Polish history in the 20th century.
