National Letters is the first book published by Letter Books. National Letters travels through the episodes of the past in which letters, languages, and scripts played an important role in creating nation states and national identities. Through four case studies (Turkey, Israel, Georgia, Ethiopia), the main body of the book explores four languages and nations which were each, against all odds and for various reasons, able to develop and maintain their writing system throughout their entire history, up to the founding of their nation state.

Edited and Designed by Marek Nedelka

Contributions and texts by Rusudan Amirejibi–Mullen, Ivo T. Budil, Birol Caymaz, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, Marek Nedelka, William Safran, Emmanuel Szurek

Postcard letterings by Jan Horčík, Seb McLauchlan, Anežka Minaříková, Jan Novák

Co-Published with UMPRUM (Academy of Arts, Architecture & Design in Prague)

Letter Books

Reading letters from unexpected directions.

National Letters: Languages and Scripts as Nation-building Tools, 384 pages, 110×180 mm, 300 copies, ISBN: 978-80-270-9849-1

National Letters is the first book published by Letter Books. National Letters travels through the episodes of the past in which letters, languages, and scripts played an important role in creating nation states and national identities. Through four case studies (Turkey, Israel, Georgia, Ethiopia), the main body of the book explores four languages and nations which were each, against all odds and for various reasons, able to develop and maintain their writing system throughout their entire history, up to the founding of their nation state.

Edited and Designed by Marek Nedelka

Contributions and texts by Rusudan Amirejibi–Mullen, Ivo T. Budil, Birol Caymaz, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, Marek Nedelka, William Safran, Emmanuel Szurek

Postcard letterings by Jan Horčík, Seb McLauchlan, Anežka Minaříková, Jan Novák

Co-Published with UMPRUM (Academy of Arts, Architecture & Design in Prague)

Letter Books is a small publishing imprint found by Marek Nedelka in 2019. The main focus is language, writing systems and typography. Contact me at mail@mareknedelka.com or Instagram for purchases, workshops or presentations. 

Past events:

Imagining Letters: Languages and Scripts as Emancipatory Tools
Presentation at ENSBA, Lyon
March 2021

National Letters: Languages and Scripts as Nation-building Tools
Presentation at Printed Matter, New York
April 2020