JAN tai SOIHTU NUMERO 1
Visualizing poems about a suicide

ROLE

Editorial Design (cover & index)
Illustration

JAN tai SOIHTU NUMERO 1 (Jan, or Torch Number 1) is a collection of letters written in free verse to Czech student Jan Palach, who, in the aftermath of Europe’s turbulent year of 1968, burned himself to death following the Soviet-led occupation of his country.

Why did a 20-year-old resort to such an extreme act? Why does his story resonate with a Finnish man well into his thirties? Does self-destructiveness attract self-destructiveness? Through evocative verse, the book explores dark inner landscapes, obsession, loss, and the search for meaning.

The hand-drawn illustrations, selected from my daily drawings, reflect the personal and intimate nature of the poems while visualising the book’s abstract emotional landscape through a sense of emptiness. The headings are set in Traulha Serif, whose subtle disruptions of familiar letterforms mirror the tension at the heart of the book. Its shifting contrasts create a quiet sense of instability, giving visual form to the book’s central themes.