“Unfolding Complication,” written and designed by Zibby Jahns. Limited edition printed at CPW Kingston and 1080press under the tutelage of Vladimir Nahitchevansky with the help of Jackson Hardin in October 2025.

Through a series of letters to my ancestors and fragments of archive derived from extensive genealogical and academic research, I explore modern notions of borders, trauma, colonization and the fabrication of whiteness. Each “book” is in fact six different booklets with no bindings, all folded into different forms to match various paper ephemera (map, letter, passport, postcard accordion, etc) as an archive of thoughts and research on migration, religion, home and resistance. All paper for one dossier are derived from the dimensions of one parent sheet. One hundred dossiers made from one hundred sheets. The folder that holds them all introduces their theme and material, as well as the significance of folding and unfolding. The series of documents is a follow-up to an essay I wrote in October 2023 entitled “Unfolding Complication,” included here. It explores the need to dredge up our personal Jewish histories to remember what our Jewish principles are and how we must re-commit to them.