Purple Swallow

Screenprinted leporello artbook, 12 × 12 cm
Created and printed in Paris, 2025
Original artwork by Eszter Hegedűs
Poem by Ágnes Nemes Nagy (1965)
Translated from Hungarian by József Váradi
Typeset in Pangaia by Pangram Pangram Foundry
Special thanks to Arianna Tamburini

Purple Swallow is a hand-assembled, screenprinted leporello artbook inspired by Ágnes Nemes Nagy’s 1965 poem of the same title. With the creation of it, I aimed to merge a poetic narrative into a tactile, folded format. Both a personal homage and a meditation on farewell, the edition reflects a deep engagement with memory, language, and the quiet intricacies of the handmade process.

The artbook exists in three colour variations, with multiple editions of each.

In 2020 I had just moved countries and left a part of my life behind. That was when I felt inspired to create an homage to my favourite childhood poem, Purple Swallow, by Ágnes Nemes Nagy. Looking back, I realise I was subconsciously working through the theme of farewell by creating that little book.

Most of the aquarelles that form the base of the illustrations were painted that same year. Then, in autumn 2024, I decided to turn the material into a leporello artbook — something I could only vaguely imagine at the time. What followed were months of intense and sometimes emotional work: refining the narrative structure, designing, painting more, editing, screenprinting in two layers, cutting, sewing, crafting the covers, assembling it all. It was a process shaped by both devotion and frustration, the pursuit of precision, and at times, tears.

Now complete, Purple Swallow stands as one of my most personal and heartfelt projects — a tactile meditation on language, memory, and the slow, imperfect beauty of the handmade.