curator: Katarzyna Łata
Zamek Sielecki (Sosnowiec, ul. Zamkowa 2)
18.09.2026 – 31.12.2026
opening: 18.09.2026, godz. 18:00
guided tour: 19.09.2026, godz. 17:00
A photo book is a place where image, word, material, and time converge. Its meaning arises not only from individual photographs, but also from the relationships between successive pages, the rhythm of the sequence, the framing, the quality of the paper, the typography, the binding, and the act of turning the pages. It is within this complex space that Aneta Kowalczyk works: graphic designer, photo editor, book designer, and artistic director of BLOW UP PRESS.
I like it when things aren’t simple is the first solo exhibition dedicated to publications designed by Aneta Kowalczyk. The exhibition’s title refers not only to the nature of her work but also to a way of thinking about the book as a form that does not have to lead the viewer by the shortest path to meaning. On the contrary: it can offer resistance, leave things unsaid, shift perspectives, and demand attentiveness. It can be an object, an experience, and a story all at once. At the heart of Kowalczyk’s practice lies the conviction that a book is not a neutral container for images. It is an autonomous narrative space in which form and content constantly interact. Design, therefore, begins with the story—with an attempt to understand what exactly needs to be told, what kind of experience is to be conveyed to the viewer, and what relationships between images will allow that story to resonate. Here, design is neither decoration nor a layer added to finished material. It becomes a method of reading, selecting, organizing, and interpreting. Kowalczyk works at the intersection of photography and design, between intuition and construction. As a photoeditor, she shapes the narrative through the selection and arrangement of images; as a book designer, she gives this narrative a material and spatial dimension. Her projects demonstrate that the sequence of photographs, the pause between them, changes in scale, empty space, fragments, typography, or the type of paper can be just as significant elements of the story as the image itself.
The materiality of the book is also crucial here. A publication held in one’s hands is not merely an object to be viewed. It initiates its own ritual of engagement. The reader becomes a participant in the design process: opening, turning pages, pausing, going back, comparing, and discovering new connections. The book has its own drama, pace, and physicality. It is a sequence, but also the space between sequences.
In this sense, Aneta Kowalczyk’s projects can be interpreted as attempts to expand the language of the photobook. They are not about searching for a single universal design method, but about adapting the form to a specific story. Each publication requires a different approach, because each tells a different story and engages the viewer’s memory, emotions, or imagination in a different way. The designer therefore does not impose a single aesthetic on the photographs—she allows the form to emerge from the nature of the material.
This practice evolves through dialogue with photographers, artists, and institutions from many countries. Publications designed by Kowalczyk have been presented and recognized at major international events and competitions dedicated to photography, art books, and design, including the Les Rencontres d’Arles Book Awards, the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize, the Lucie Photo Book Award, PHotoESPAÑA, the European Design Awards, and the Prix Bob Calle du livre d’artiste. In 2018, Aneta Kowalczyk was among the three winners of the Magazine Visual Editors of the Year title in the Pictures of the Year International (POY75) competition.
However, the exhibition I like it when things aren’t simple is neither a catalog of successes nor a review of award-winning projects. It is an attempt to examine the thought process behind the creation of a book. When viewed together, these publications reveal a diversity of design strategies, as well as recurring questions: Where does the narrative begin? How does an image change its meaning when placed next to another image? What happens between the pages? How does the physical form of the book influence the way we look at it?
The exhibition presents the photobook as a medium that requires the collaboration of many sensibilities. The photographer, artist, editor, designer, publisher, and reader all participate in the creation of meaning, which is never entirely fixed. Aneta Kowalczyk occupies a special place in this process: between the image and its reception, between the author’s intention and the viewer’s experience.
I like it when things aren’t simple is thus a story about design as the art of mindfulness. About the search for a form that does not obscure the content but allows it to reveal successive layers. About a book that does not end on the last page. And about the conviction that sometimes, precisely when the path through the image and its meaning is not straightforward, true reading begins.
Katarzyna Łata
List of publications:
- 9 Gates of No Return (Agata Grzybowska)
- Big Fence / Pitcairn Island (Rhiannon Adam)
- Binom (Nata Drachiskaya)
- Dame Gulizar and Other Love Stories (Rebecca Topakian)
- Death Landscapes (Hubert Humka)
- Debuts [2 numery rocznika: 2014 oraz 2017]
- Deceitful Reverence (Igor Pisuk)
- Deglet Nour (Tytus Grodzicki)
- Devine (Hubert Humka)
- doc! Photo magazine [10 numerów czasopisma w różnych wersjach projektowych]
- Encyclopaedia (Weronika Gęsicka)
- Ephermal Field Journal Climate + Love (in Claude Monet Garden) (Sarah Shorr)
- Erna Helena Ania (Tomasz Łączny)
- Est et non Est (Paweł Żak)
- Eternal U (Hubert Humka)
- Garden (Marta Zgierska, Mateusz Sarełło)
- Glitter Blues (Lorenzo Castore)
- Hasenheide Suite (Damien Daufresne)
- Homesick New York (Michael Ackerman)
- Hotel of Eternal Light (Karolina Spolniewski)
- Land (Lorenzo Castore)
- My Dearest Javanese Concubine (Luca Desienna)
- object amnesic: a compost manifesto (Henrik Strömberg, Jens Soneryd)
- once a year the stick shoots (Natalia Wiernik, Nastasiia Leliuk)
- Over.State (Ilias Gieorgiadis)
- Paraeidolon (Waldemar Lipiński)
- The Need to Know (Michael Honegger)
- The World Is Where You Stop (Tomasz Tomaszewski)
- Undertow (Damien Daufresne)
- viridescent, afire (Małgorzata Stankiewicz)