Great Force

Author: Nicholas Mirzoeff (Contributor), Rebecca Walker (Contributor), Amber Esseiva (Author)
Publisher: ICA Virginia Commonwealth
Year: 2019
Pages: 300
ISBN:

Great Force is accompanied by a fully illustrated publication edited by curator Amber Esseiva, who also contributes an overview essay as well as texts on each artist. Essays by Frederick Douglass and James Baldwin accompany W.E.B. Du Bois’s 1900 hand-drawn data visualization infographics. Excerpts from Nell Irvin Painter’s The History of White People make evident that the mould of the American citizen was constructed under the pressure of white domination. Contributions by Nicholas Mirzoeff, The Racial Imaginary Institute, and Rebecca Walker theorize the ongoing effects of racial tensions in the midst of the current war on terror and the resurgence of white nationalism marked by the Obama and Trump administrations.

The publication is designed by Silas Munro and Brian Johnson, native Virginians who run the bi-coastal studio poly-mode. Taking design inspiration from W.E.B. Du Bois’s migration maps and charts. The book is set in William, a newly developed Du Boisian inspired typeface created by Tré Seals of Vocal Type.