Homelands 고향땅

Homelands 고향땅 is a limited-edition artist book born from a granddaughter’s promise to her late grandfather, Sohng Ung Kim, a US military-trained camera repairman and photographer for the Korean army based in Saigon. It is a memoir of a home in northern Korea and his journey alone from the north to the south in the 1940s as a boy. Using the spiral-bound notebook he left behind, writer Esther Kim created this hybrid—artist book, photo book, translation, archive, and family heirloom—in collaboration with artist and designer Martyna Alexander.

The work feeds into conversations about the two Koreas and reunification; art, politics, and war; apprehending history; decolonization, resistance, and solidarity.

Printed in London on fine, heavy-weight paper, this English-to-Korean tête-bêche (upside-down) book features two covers, original painted illustrations, nostalgic color combinations, and thread-sewn binding making it a work of art all its own.

First edition limited to 300 copies, hand numbered.

Publication Date: September 3, 2026

Size: 146 pages, 19 cm x 31 cm (7.5 × 12 inches), 555 grams (1.2 lbs)

Collected by:
cc library @ aabb design studio, Seoul, KR
Mason House Library @ Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, Vermont, US
Baker-Berry Library @ Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, US