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My Life in the Gulag: A Personal Account of Life in Siberian Labor Camps by Justin Merk

Peter  Kruty

2001
Handmade Thai mulberry paper, kozo paper
letterpress printing
7 1/4 x 12 x 1/2 in
text by Justin Merk
illustrated by Anita Merk

My Life in the Gulag: A Personal Account of Life in Siberian Labor Camps, written by Justin Merk on the occasion of his eightieth birthday as a gift to his family and friends, tells a harrowing account of his survival in Russia's Siberian prison camps as a German prisoner of World War II. The book was designed with intuition and great feeling by Anita Merk, Justin's daughter. Anita is a design principal at the New York graphic design firm Flyleaf. Created in soft Thai papers and lightweight board binding with long asymmetric text lines of Hoeffler Text and featuring several surprises including a fold-out hand calligraphed map of his travels and a recreated postcard message home in a back cover pocket, the book endeavors to bring humanity and even delicacy to a gruelling tale.

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