White Lie

The publication White Lie is a theoretical and critical extension, as well as a summary and documentation of the exhibition of the same title. It is also a collection of texts by the exhibition curators: Emilia Orzechowska and Stanisław Ruksza, psychologist Agnieszka Jasińska, literature critic Anna Kałuża and art historian Agata Cukierska, in which the theorists outline a broader context for the phenomenon of 'untruth' and place the exhibition in a contemporary socio-cultural context.

The publication project was developed in parallel with the exhibition. The content of the publication, texts and photographs, was created in accordance with an assumption concerning two ways of interacting with the catalogue. In the first case, the person browsing through the book stops at the pictures of interest and, using a system of links, learns about the contexts related to specific works. In the second case, the reader can read the text written in the form of a curator's guide through the exhibition, moving to the photographs of the described works thanks to the system of links. This process is designed for both Polish and English languages.

The author of the publication, like the participating artists, referred to formal issues related to white in all its varieties, tones and textures. With this in mind, three different white papers were selected for the publication, each differing in shade and texture. Thanks to various design and printing techniques, the reader of the publication may wonder about the authenticity of details such as the handwritten lettering on the cover, the flawlessness of the whiteness of the subsequent pages or the print quality of some sections of the text.


The project was co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.

  • Publication