{"id":6376,"date":"2025-12-15T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/?p=6376"},"modified":"2025-12-15T12:14:43","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T17:14:43","slug":"passports-as-books-and-books-as-passports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/2025\/12\/15\/passports-as-books-and-books-as-passports\/","title":{"rendered":"Passports as Books and Books as Passports"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignfull has-base-background-color has-background has-global-padding is-layout-constrained wp-container-core-group-is-layout-258e4d99 wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\" style=\"margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--30);padding-right:var(--wp--preset--spacing--50);padding-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--30);padding-left:var(--wp--preset--spacing--50)\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignwide has-base-2-background-color has-background has-global-padding is-layout-constrained wp-container-core-group-is-layout-da4c956d wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\" style=\"border-radius:16px;padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40);padding-right:var(--wp--preset--spacing--50);padding-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40);padding-left:var(--wp--preset--spacing--50)\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-5eaea892 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-center is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\"><h1 class=\"wp-block-post-title\">Passports as Books and Books as Passports<\/h1>\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-template-part\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignwide has-contrast-color has-text-color has-link-color has-medium-font-size wp-elements-1 is-layout-flex wp-container-core-group-is-layout-3f968af1 wp-block-group-is-layout-flex\" style=\"font-style:normal;font-weight:600\"><div class=\"has-text-align-left has-link-color wp-elements-2 wp-block-post-date has-text-color has-contrast-color\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/2025\/12\/15\/passports-as-books-and-books-as-passports\/\"><time datetime=\"2025-12-15T12:00:00-05:00\">December 15, 2025<\/time><\/a><\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-contrast-color has-text-color wp-block-paragraph\">\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-contrast-color has-text-color has-small-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">by<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"has-link-color wp-elements-3 wp-block-post-author-name has-text-color has-contrast-color\"><a href=\"\" target=\"_self\" class=\"wp-block-post-author-name__link\">Inge Orlowski<\/a><\/div>\n\n<div class=\"taxonomy-category has-link-color wp-elements-4 wp-block-post-terms has-text-color has-contrast-color\"><span class=\"wp-block-post-terms__prefix\">in <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/category\/features\/\" rel=\"tag\">Features<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-center is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large is-resized is-style-rounded is-style-rounded--1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/picture_04.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"999\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/picture_04-999x1024.jpg\" alt=\"A photo of a copy of \u201cPasseport\u201d by S\u00e9bastien Conard, standing open. The interior pages that are visible show scenes of famous Belgian comics, printed in bright neon colors, but with characters represented only as silhouettes. The pages also feature page numbers in speech bubbles as well as usual visual safety features of a passport, such as the passport number, printed to imitate laser perforations, at the top, and a small map of Belgium at the bottom.\" class=\"wp-image-6377\" style=\"aspect-ratio:0.975609756097561;width:309px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/picture_04-999x1024.jpg 999w, https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/picture_04-293x300.jpg 293w, https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/picture_04-768x788.jpg 768w, https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/picture_04-1498x1536.jpg 1498w, https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/picture_04-50x50.jpg 50w, https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/picture_04.jpg 1997w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 999px) 100vw, 999px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Even though there is, of course, no easy definition of what a book is exactly, a passport is an object that is very much like a book, without being usually considered to be one. Indeed, depending on the issuing country and some other factors, a passport is a small booklet (e.g. about 90&#215;130 cm) of about 32 pages, saddle stitched with a semi-flexible, gold-embossed cover and very elaborated printing and fabrication techniques such as laser perforations and engravings, microprinting, UV inks, holograms, kinegrams, latent images and ghost images<a href=\"#_ftn1\" id=\"_ftnref1\">[1]<\/a>. Modern passports also contain electronic components like a microchip and an antenna. Different countries have different \u2018editions\u2019 of this \u2018book\u2019, and each copy is personalised with a photograph and details about the person it was made for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-3a88641f wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:100%\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-3a88641f wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What I intend to point out with this description is that, materially, passports are very much like fancy tiny books. However, the functions and significance carried by this material form are quite different from those of a normal book. For the purposes of this reflection, some main dimensions of a passport\u2019s significance can be highlighted. First, a passport exists in order to identify its holder by describing an individual through bodily features and biometrics. Through the stamps and visa accumulated within it, a passport may also tell a story about that individual\u2019s life and travels: when have they crossed which border, how long did they spend in each place? Second, passports represent not only the individuals carrying them, but also the nation they were issued by. They define who and what is part of that nation, and they serve an emblematic function. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/picture_01.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"813\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/picture_01-813x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Photograph of the front cover of a passport of the Federal Republic of Germany, dark red and gold-embossed, featuring the Federal Eagle and the electronic passport logo. The writing reads \u201cEurop\u00e4ische Union, Bundesrepublik Deutschland\u201d at the top and the word \u201cPassport\u201d in German, English, and French at the Bottom.\" class=\"wp-image-6385\" style=\"aspect-ratio:0.793956887551434;width:354px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/picture_01-813x1024.jpg 813w, https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/picture_01-238x300.jpg 238w, https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/picture_01-768x967.jpg 768w, https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/picture_01.jpg 911w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 813px) 100vw, 813px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><br>1. Deutscher Reisepass. Barbara Maiser\/Unsplash<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is achieved most clearly by the state\u2019s emblems on the front cover, but also often on the inner pages, which represent geographical features, the national anthem, famous monuments, persons, works of art and\/or quotes that are deemed representative of the nation. In more than one way, passports create borders, defining what is \u2018here\u2019 and what is \u2018there\u2019. Of course, and this is the third dimension I would like to explore, the most evident function of a passport and often the reason why one owns one, is to cross borders and to travel safely. Thus, and fourthly, the passport bestows on its owner the agency to move around freely\u2014a freedom at the same time severely limited for those who do not own a passport or one that is unable to grant this agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">All these dimensions of the passport are inscribed into its materiality. They are particularly evidenced by the many safety features of a passport such as the sophisticated paper and printing techniques, but also by size, format, illustrations, text, and all other aspects of a passport\u2019s materiality. As Mahmud Keshavarz argues in his monograph <em>The Design Politics of the Passport<\/em>,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote has-medium-font-size is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[\u2026] we tend to see design as a neutral and passive instrument that can be the carrier of \u2018good\u2019 or \u2018bad\u2019 ideologies and intentions. However [\u2026], I argue the opposite: that because design always entails an imagination of certain persons, ideologies, arguments, positions, and privileges being realized in the materiality of the world, design inevitably produces specific politics of life and living.<a href=\"#_ftn2\" id=\"_ftnref2\">[2]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In other words, passports frame our understanding of politics and mobility. As we will see, features of this design can be and have been appropriated by artists, authors, and publishers in the making of books.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I will focus this analysis of the passport as a book(ish object) on a small collection of different passport-like books or booklets that I acquired over the past two years. Due to my own geographic location and the fact that I did not constitute this collection systematically, it is necessarily Eurocentric. Examples from other regions of the world might bring to light different aspects of the bookishness of passports (and the passport-ness of some books). In the following, I will propose an exploration of these \u2018bookish passports\u2019 along three of the dimensions outlined above: Passport and nation; passports and travel; passport and agency. The dimension of identity is only marginally present in books that imitate passports since they are not generally personalised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Passport and Nation<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-3a88641f wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/picture_02_a.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/picture_02_a-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"A photograph of four copies of \u201cPasseport Po\u00e9sie\u201d published by Kultur|lx. The booklet is dark blue with golden lettering. The front cover shows the title \u201cPASSEPORT POESIE\u201d, as well as the electronic passport logo at the bottom and the logo of Kultur|lx at the top.\" class=\"wp-image-6389\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/picture_02_a-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/picture_02_a-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/picture_02_a-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/picture_02_a-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/picture_02_a.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">2. Kultur|lx, passeport po\u00e9sie. URL: https:\/\/reperes.lu\/realisations\/kulturlx-la-poesie-fait-voyager <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/picture_02_b.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/picture_02_b.jpg\" alt=\"A photograph of an interior page of \u201cPasseport po\u00e9sie\u201d, featuring the French-language poem \u201cRetour\u201d by Tom Nisse.\" class=\"wp-image-6390\" style=\"aspect-ratio:0.7500157937961969;width:343px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/picture_02_b.jpg 768w, https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/picture_02_b-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Passports play a part in constructing and perpetuating the imagined communities which, as Benedict Anderson argues<a href=\"#_ftn3\" id=\"_ftnref3\">[3]<\/a>, first emerged through print capitalism: nations. Indeed, Jouni H\u00e4kli describes the passport as a device that, historically, played a role in \u201cnaturalizing the idea of borders and territorial belonging.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn4\" id=\"_ftnref4\">[4]<\/a> Both the book and the passport are everyday objects that create a sense of belonging shared by large, anonymous groups of people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some of the bookish passports in my collection copy that emblematic function. The object that started my collection was not commercialised as a book, but it is still a book-adjacent object in the double sense that it is a small-format poetry collection, and that it was conceived as a tool to direct attention towards Luxembourgish poets. The Luxembourg Arts Council Kultur|lx has produced these little brochures in a format reminiscent of a passport and featuring a collection of ten French-language poems by Luxembourgish poets. The publication, titled <em>Passeport Po\u00e9sie<\/em><a href=\"#_ftn5\" id=\"_ftnref5\">[5]<\/a>, was distributed for free at the occasion of Luxembourg\u2019s Guest of Honour presence at the March\u00e9 de la po\u00e9sie in Paris in 2022. The publication bears the logo of Kultur|lx, which is a state-funded organisation, and of the Luxembourgish ministry of culture. Being published by a state authority, the <em>Passeport Po\u00e9sie<\/em> mimics the emblematic function of a passport by presenting the qualities of Luxembourgish poetry to the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-3a88641f wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:33.33%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-12-at-1.41.39-PM.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"410\" height=\"550\" src=\"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-12-at-1.41.39-PM.png\" alt=\"Front cover of the publication \u201cEU-Lyrik-Reisepass\u201d. A dark red or brownish cover with yellow writing. Similar to the German Passport, it reads \u201cEurop\u00e4ische Union, Bundesrepublik Deutschland\u201d at the top, but features the stars of the EU Flag in place of the Federal Eagle, and the title \u201cEU-Lyrik-Reisepass\u201d as well as the publisher\u2019s name, Dielmann.\" class=\"wp-image-6396\" style=\"aspect-ratio:0.7212210546336361;width:252px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-12-at-1.41.39-PM.png 410w, https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-12-at-1.41.39-PM-224x300.png 224w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 410px) 100vw, 410px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:66.66%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-12-at-1.41.10-PM-e1765565013696.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"779\" height=\"541\" src=\"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-12-at-1.41.10-PM-e1765565013696.png\" alt=\" An inside spread of the EU-Lyrik-Reisepass, featuring, on the left, a poem by Jila Mossaed, and on the right, a poem by Johan Sandberg McGuine, both in their German translations. Imitating the design of a passport, the pages have a header: \u201cSE Visumsgedicht f\u00fcr Schweden.\" class=\"wp-image-6395\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.4391218628443545;width:508px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-12-at-1.41.10-PM-e1765565013696.png 779w, https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-12-at-1.41.10-PM-e1765565013696-300x208.png 300w, https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-12-at-1.41.10-PM-e1765565013696-768x533.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 779px) 100vw, 779px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">3. EU-Lyrik-Reisepass: Dielmann Verlag. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dielmann-verlag.de\/de\/content\/europeanbooks-sample-passport\/~nm.67~nc.165\/EU-Lyrik-Passport.html#x\">http:\/\/www.dielmann-verlag.de\/de\/content\/europeanbooks-sample-passport\/~nm.67~nc.165\/EU-Lyrik-Passport.html#x<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">My second bookish passport was directly inspired by the Luxembourgish <em>Passeport Po\u00e9sie<\/em>, which German publisher Axel Dielmann stumbled upon at Frankfurt Book Fair 2021.<a href=\"#_ftn6\" id=\"_ftnref6\">[6]<\/a> Dielmann\u2019s <em>EU-Lyrik-Reisepass<\/em><a href=\"#_ftn7\" id=\"_ftnref7\">[7]<\/a> features a double page for every EU member state, with two poems representing each country, all translated into German. The size is similar to that of a passport, the cover reproduces the red colour of EU passports and the golden stars of the EU flag. The poems are designated as \u201cVisa poems\u201d for every country. This creates an ambivalence between the EU as a nation that the passport seeks to represent, and the EU member states as destinations that the poems will allow the reader to travel to. We will come back to the latter aspect below. Ideas of nationality and European unity thus compete in this publication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-3a88641f wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:33.33%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/picture_04.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"999\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/picture_04-999x1024.jpg\" alt=\"A photo of a copy of \u201cPasseport\u201d by S\u00e9bastien Conard, standing open. The interior pages that are visible show scenes of famous Belgian comics, printed in bright neon colors, but with characters represented only as silhouettes. The pages also feature page numbers in speech bubbles as well as usual visual safety features of a passport, such as the passport number, printed to imitate laser perforations, at the top, and a small map of Belgium at the bottom.\" class=\"wp-image-6377\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/picture_04-999x1024.jpg 999w, https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/picture_04-293x300.jpg 293w, https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/picture_04-768x788.jpg 768w, https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/picture_04-1498x1536.jpg 1498w, https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/picture_04-50x50.jpg 50w, https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/picture_04.jpg 1997w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 999px) 100vw, 999px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">4. S\u00e9bastien Conard: Passeport.<br>https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/@La5eCouche\/<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:66.66%\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Other publications also reproduce the representational function of the passport, but from a more critical perspective. <em>Passeport<\/em> by S\u00e9bastien Conard, published by La 5e Couche in Belgium<a href=\"#_ftn8\" id=\"_ftnref8\">[8]<\/a>, is an almost accurate copy of the authentic Belgian passport, which features silhouettes of famous Belgian comic characters. The rather pastel tones of the actual passport were changed into bright neon colours, but otherwise the images correspond completely. In texts announcing the publication, the publisher and the author call it a \u201cmisappropriation of a misappropriation\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn9\" id=\"_ftnref9\">[9]<\/a>, questioning the state\u2019s legitimacy to use comic artist\u2019s work for representative purposes. All of these bookish passports play with the fact that passports are portable nation-ness<a href=\"#_ftn10\" id=\"_ftnref10\">[10]<\/a> and that they reproduce the border far from the border<a href=\"#_ftn11\" id=\"_ftnref11\">[11]<\/a>, be it through mimicking, extending, reappropriating or critiquing this function of a passport. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">These first three bookish passports are explicitly tied to the countries where they were conceived: Luxembourg, Germany, and Belgium. They represent a nation or create a feeling of national belonging through literature, or on the contrary question the ways in which this is done by the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Passports and Travel<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The primary aim of a passport, however, is to cross borders and to travel. This dimension is also materially addressed by the bookish passports on various levels. A mere book does not a priori have the power to allow an individual to cross a national border. Books are, however, well suited as travel devices for texts and ideas. In their foreword to the <em>EU-Lyrik-Reisepass<\/em>, the editors Dielmann and Sch\u00f6ttler insist on translation as a border-crossing practice: \u201c\u00dcber die Grenzen hinweg, seien sie nun aus Draht oder sonstigem harten Zeug oder schon ganz aufgel\u00f6st, gehen die \u00dcbersetzer am freudvollsten\u201d (\u201cAcross borders, may they be made of wire and or other hard stuff or already quite dissipated, the translators walk most joyously\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn12\" id=\"_ftnref12\">[12]<\/a>). The idea is that, through literature which \u2018travels\u2019 to us via translation, we can mentally \u2018travel\u2019 to where it came from. The literary texts thus enable border crossing. Luxembourg\u2019s <em>Passeport Po\u00e9sie<\/em> also plays with the idea of travelling, since this theme is frequently present in the poems it contains. Through the poems as well as by using the material form of the passport, the publication presents Luxembourg as inherently cosmopolitan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-3a88641f wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:33.33%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/picture_05_a.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"618\" src=\"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/picture_05_a.jpeg\" alt=\"Front Cover of \u201cBookland Passport\u201d. A grey paper booklet, staple bound and with golden lettering. In addition to the title, the cover shows an open book above which floats a stylized terrestrial globe surrounded by the slogan \u201cLIBRI SINE TERMINO\u201d\" class=\"wp-image-6398\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/picture_05_a.jpeg 600w, https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/picture_05_a-291x300.jpeg 291w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">5. Bookland Passport. Photo by Desperate Literature, scan by me.<br><a href=\"https:\/\/desperateliterature.com\/product\/bookland-passport\">https:\/\/desperateliterature.com\/product\/bookland-passport<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:66.66%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/picture_05_b-scaled.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"706\" src=\"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/picture_05_b-1024x706.jpg\" alt=\" Inside spread of the Bookland Passport. Both pages feature illustrations only, both exclusively in blue. On the left, a dragon flying high above the mountains at dusk, on the right, another ragged mountain landscape with a tent and a kettle above a fire installed between the rocks.\" class=\"wp-image-6399\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.4506031613976706;width:624px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/picture_05_b-1024x706.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/picture_05_b-300x207.jpg 300w, https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/picture_05_b-768x529.jpg 768w, https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/picture_05_b-1536x1059.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/picture_05_b-2048x1412.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In another sense, literature can let us travel into imaginary worlds. This is the idea that the <em>Bookland Passport<\/em><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"#_ftn13\" id=\"_ftnref13\">[13]<\/a> <\/span>plays with. This small volume contains mostly illustrations that evoke more or less imaginary worlds that we might \u2018travel\u2019 to through books, such as a cozy caf\u00e9, or wild mountains with a dragon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, not everyone has a passport and not every passport enables border crossing, at least not at any border. They are supposed to keep an individual safe outside of its own nation state, as Susan Harban Page recounts: \u201cHow many times I placed these pieces of paper, this tiny book with stamps, and my photo, securely in my pocket or backpack, counting on them to keep me safe.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn14\" id=\"_ftnref14\">[14]<\/a> But passports also keep states \u2018safe\u2019 from unwanted individuals. Artists, authors and publishers have appropriated elements of passports\u2019 materiality to reflect upon and criticise the unequal distribution of privilege through passports. Page is an American artist and scholar who has gold-leafed her old passport as a reflection on the privilege it represents, reinterpreting the American passport as a \u201cgolden ticket\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn15\" id=\"_ftnref15\">[15]<\/a> that lets you travel anywhere. I mention this project here although it is not a book publication but an individual work of art, because it highlights another way in which the materiality and specifically the bookishness of the passport can be appropriated. In the quote above, she calls the passport a \u201ctiny book\u201d. Further, she describes the gold leafing as reminiscent of illuminations in ancient manuscripts<a href=\"#_ftn16\" id=\"_ftnref16\">[16]<\/a>, attributing another kind of value to the passport than the political power it initially held. The fact that the passport, as a portable paper object, resembles a book, makes this reinterpretation of its value possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-3a88641f wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/picture_06_a.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"810\" height=\"960\" src=\"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/picture_06_a.jpg\" alt=\" photograph of two copies of the French edition of \u201cPasseport\u201d by Antoine Cassar. A closed copy lies atop an opened one. The cover is dark brown with gold embossed title and author\u2019s name and an image of a goose flying around the terrestrial globe. Underneath, the opened copy shows the imprint page.\" class=\"wp-image-6400\" style=\"aspect-ratio:0.8437550405935803;width:423px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/picture_06_a.jpg 810w, https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/picture_06_a-253x300.jpg 253w, https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/picture_06_a-768x910.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 810px) 100vw, 810px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">6. Antoine Cassar: Passeport.&nbsp; Photo on the left by Elizabeth Grech, on the right by Martina Ambruso. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.passaportproject.org\/\">http:\/\/www.passaportproject.org\/<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/picture_06_b.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"761\" height=\"960\" src=\"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/picture_06_b.jpg\" alt=\" A view of an inside page of the English edition of Antoine Cassar\u2019s Passport-poem. It reads: \u201cyours\/this passport\/for all peoples, and for all landscapes,\/take it where you will, there is no need for a stamp or visa,\/you can leave or stay as you please, it does not expire,\/you can renounce it, it is not the property of the government, duke or queen, you may even have several,\/if you want, you can leave it at home, or throw it in the garbage, nobody will demand it,\/if you want, you can throw it into the sea, and watch as the ink runs, the pages tear, and the unkempt sadness of your face dissolves in the waves and the salt,\/if you want, you can hurl it into the air, and watch it flutter and take flight on the wind,\/taking you, if you want,\/with it.\u201d\" class=\"wp-image-6401\" style=\"aspect-ratio:0.7927158841209304;width:403px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/picture_06_b.jpg 761w, https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/picture_06_b-238x300.jpg 238w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 761px) 100vw, 761px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On the contrary, Antoine Cassar\u2019s <em>Passaport<\/em><a href=\"#_ftn17\" id=\"_ftnref17\">[17]<\/a> is an actual book and has been available in many different languages.<a href=\"#_ftn18\" id=\"_ftnref18\">[18]<\/a> Initially written in Maltese and conceived as part of a greater political and artistic project, it contains one long poem that denounces the denying of fundamental rights to people on the grounds of the passports or ID papers they do or do not own. It presents itself as a consolation of sorts to those who have no valid passport and suffer extreme violence at borders, repeating that it, the book, is now their passport and that it will protect them, as if to repair the violence inherent in a passport. The book indeed presents itself as a passport on the outside, with a dark red\/brown colour, a size similar to most passports, and an emblem, which is gold embossed or printed in yellow depending on the edition. The emblem represents a goose freely travelling the globe. While the poem is also performed live across the world, the passport-like material form of the book edition is necessary for the assertion that it can replace actual passports and remedy their violence to make sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As H\u00e4kli evidences<a href=\"#_ftn19\" id=\"_ftnref19\">[19]<\/a>, passports serve the regulation of physical bodies at physical borders. Books, however, transport intangible things and can thus question bordering practices. By appropriating material features of a passport, they symbolically distribute equal rights to readers regardless of their origin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Reappropriating Agency<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By letting possessors of certain passports cross borders and others not, passports allocate agency to certain bodies. But the issuing states can just as easily revoke that agency.<a href=\"#_ftn20\" id=\"_ftnref20\">[20]<\/a> Indeed, a valid passport is always the state\u2019s property, not the individual\u2019s. Artists and authors symbolically reappropriate that agency over our bodies. In another register, this is also what forgers do, since forgery is a technique used by those to whom passports are otherwise inaccessible. Keshavarz states that \u201cForgery as an act of redesigning passports and the relations and situations they produce, through recognizing the very artificiality of those relations, is also an inevitable element of the passport.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn21\" id=\"_ftnref21\">[21]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This practice is invoked by the publisher of Conard\u2019s <em>Passeport<\/em> in the publication\u2019s imprint. In lieu of the usual phrase in a book\u2019s imprint warning against piracy, it reads: \u201cLa loi punit cruellement le contrefacteur de travaux forc\u00e9s \u00e0 perp\u00e9tuit\u00e9, pas nous. Il ne manquerait plus que cela.\u201d (\u201cThe law cruelly punishes the counterfeiter with a life sentence of forced labour, not us. That would be the last straw.\u201d)<a href=\"#_ftn22\" id=\"_ftnref22\">[22]<\/a> This remark mocks the repression the state exerts against forgery, bootlegging and copyright infringements, while at the same time copying original artwork to decorate its passport. The parallel made between passport forgery and book piracy, and the laws prohibiting both, is interesting: while a bootlegged book \u2018liberates\u2019 its content, a forged passport \u2018liberates\u2019 its holder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-12-at-1.58.11-PM.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1808\" height=\"826\" src=\"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-12-at-1.58.11-PM.png\" alt=\"Left: A photograph of \u201cPassport for the stateless\u201d by Ahmad Hammoud. The front cover is black with a big, gold-embossed image of a fly and the word \u201cPassport\u201d in English and Arabic, also in gold embossment.\nRight: A photograph of the first interior spread of \u201cPassport for the stateless\u201d. To the right, the typical first page of a passport, with the holder\u2019s name, \u201cSalam Mohamed George\u201d and space for personal data, though none is specified, and for a photo, which is also missing. On the left page, the mention \u201cPassport for the stateless\u201d and the silhouette of an imaginary country.\" class=\"wp-image-6403\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-12-at-1.58.11-PM.png 1808w, https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-12-at-1.58.11-PM-300x137.png 300w, https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-12-at-1.58.11-PM-1024x468.png 1024w, https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-12-at-1.58.11-PM-768x351.png 768w, https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-12-at-1.58.11-PM-1536x702.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1808px) 100vw, 1808px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">7. Ahmad Hammoud: Passport for the stateless.  <a href=\"https:\/\/hammoud3000.com\/Nationality-n-a-Passport-for-the-Stateless\">https:\/\/hammoud3000.com\/Nationality-n-a-Passport-for-the-Stateless<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ahmad Hammoud\u2019s <em>Passport for the stateless<\/em><a href=\"#_ftn23\" id=\"_ftnref23\">[23]<\/a>, while not edited as a book, follows a similar logic to Antoine Cassar\u2019s poem-passport: symbolically redirecting violence, consoling, and repairing. Indeed, the \u201cPassport for the stateless\u201d reproduces not only the size and typical gold-embossed cover of most passports, it also contains an ID page, complicated printed patterns and other features typical of a passport. So much so that this artwork was considered by border agents as menace to sovereignty and destroyed to reinstate order.<a href=\"#_ftn24\" id=\"_ftnref24\">[24]<\/a> Artistic reappropriations of a passport\u2019s material features appear to have some actual potential of destabilising the power relations inherent in a passport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-3a88641f wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:33.33%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/picture_07.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"283\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/picture_07.png\" alt=\"A Photograph of the first page of Bookland Passport with space for the holder\u2019s photo, name, and date of birth. All are left empty, except for \u201cDate of emission\u201d, where an added stamp indicates \u201c26 JUL 2024\u201d and \u201cEmbassy of issue\u201d which specifies \u201cTypewronger Books\u201d in handwriting. The page is titled \u201cUtopian Country of Bookland\u201d and reproduces the logo with the open book and terrestrial sphere as well as the slogan \u201cLibri Sine Termino\u201d at the bottom.\" class=\"wp-image-6402\" style=\"width:295px;height:auto\"\/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">8. Bookland Passport.Photo by Desperate Literature.https:\/\/desperateliterature.com\/product\/bookland-passport <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:66.66%\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, a more concrete possibility for books to challenge passports\u2019 discriminating functions is through creating alternative imagined communities. This is what Antoine Cassar\u2019s <em>Passaporte<\/em> project and the <em>EU-Lyrik-Reisepass<\/em> attempt to do. Via translation, they extend the potential readership of the texts beyond any national border. The <em>Bookland Passport<\/em>, on the other hand, explicitly instates bookishness as an identity and as a form of belonging to a world-wide utopian community. This is evidenced by the first page, which, like a passport\u2019s ID-page, leaves space to fill in a photo, name, and date of birth of the owner as well as the date and authority of issue, meaning the bookshop where the <em>Bookland Passport<\/em> was acquired. The last page, titled \u201cThe Great and Noble History of the Country of Bookland\u201d, explains that<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote has-small-font-size is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bookland is a country you reach through reading, through talking about books with your friends, and through hanging out at your local bookshop. Though we issue passports for Bookland, the territory it encompasses spans the entire known world, plus quite a few as yet unknown dimensions [\u2026]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">and, in the end: \u201cCitizens of Bookland don\u2019t need documentation to prove their status\u2026 but it sure is fun!\u201d Reading and discussing books is articulated as a system of belonging accessible to anyone, thereby abolishing borders and the inequalities they create and enforce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Conclusion<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To repeat Keshavarz\u2019 statement:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote has-small-font-size is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">because design always entails an imagination of certain persons, ideologies, arguments, positions, and privileges being realized in the materiality of the world, design inevitably produces specific politics of life and living.<a href=\"#_ftn25\" id=\"_ftnref25\">[25]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This holds true for books, too: through their materiality and design, they produce different realities of identity and belonging. By reappropriating some of the passport\u2019s material features, books can reproduce, deconstruct, and redirect the ways in which passports design our relations to the state, the border, and each other. The principle of mimicry or imitation that is common to the passport-books I analysed here serves different purposes and the resulting books are more or less critical toward what a passport does and represents. While most of them do not, contrary to actual passports, have an individualised page identifying the owner, they do raise questions as to how and to which extent books generally can serve to affirm identity and belonging. This small power to at least symbolically resist state authorities on the issue of belonging and travelling appears like a beacon of humanity to hold on to in the face if increasingly arbitrary and violent politics of identity and migration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref1\" id=\"_ftn1\">[1]<\/a> See for example: Bundesministerium des Innern und f\u00fcr Heimat [sic]: <em>Die aktuelle Reisepass-Generation f\u00fcr die Bundesrepublik Deutschland<\/em>, Stand Mai 2024; <em>New design of the Belgian passport<\/em>, 27.1.2022 [URL: <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/XiexwlLvvyk\">https:\/\/youtu.be\/XiexwlLvvyk<\/a>]; <em>Announcing the new Canadian passport design!<\/em>, 10.5.2023 [URL: &nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/GvoD0i-SoDs\">https:\/\/youtu.be\/GvoD0i-SoDs<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref2\" id=\"_ftn2\">[2]<\/a> Mahmoud Keshavarz: <em>The Design Politics of the Passport. Materiality, Immobility, and Dissent<\/em>, Bloomsbury Publishing USA, 2018, p. 5<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref3\" id=\"_ftn3\">[3]<\/a> Cf.: Benedict Anderson: <em>Imagined Communities. Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism<\/em>, Verso, London 1983.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref4\" id=\"_ftn4\">[4]<\/a> Cf.: Jouni H\u00e4kli: \u201cThe Border in the Pocket: The Passport as a Boundary Object\u201d, in: Amilhat-Szary, A., and F. Giraut: <em>Borderities and the Politics of Contemporary Mobile Borders<\/em>, Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2015, pp. 85-99, p. 90.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref5\" id=\"_ftn5\">[5]<\/a> Kutlur|lx \u2013 Arts Council Luxembourg (ed.): <em>Passeport po\u00e9sie<\/em>. Ca. 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref6\" id=\"_ftn6\">[6]<\/a> The editors Axel Dielmann and Stefan Sch\u00f6ttler relate this encounter in their introduction within the publication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref7\" id=\"_ftn7\">[7]<\/a> Axel Dielmann, Stefan Sch\u00f6ttler (ed.): <em>EU-Lyrik-Reisepass<\/em>, Dielmann Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2022.<br>For more information, see <a href=\"https:\/\/www.europeanbookprojects.eu\/\">https:\/\/www.europeanbookprojects.eu\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref8\" id=\"_ftn8\">[8]<\/a> S\u00e9bastien Conard: Passeport. 5c \u00e9ditions, Brussels 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref9\" id=\"_ftn9\">[9]<\/a> Facebook-event \u201cLancement de Passeport, de S\u00e9bastien Conard\u201d, planned for May 26, 2023, published by La 5<sup>e<\/sup> Couche (5c), Judith Forest and S\u00e9bastien Conard. URL: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/events\/3384014345187398\/\">https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/events\/3384014345187398\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref10\" id=\"_ftn10\">[10]<\/a> Cf. Susan Harban Page: \u201cMy Gold-Leafed Passport\u201d, in: <em>Geopolitics<\/em> 2023, Vol. 28, pp. 904-918. <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/14650045.2021.1963707\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/14650045.2021.1963707<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref11\" id=\"_ftn11\">[11]<\/a> Cf. Keshavarz 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref12\" id=\"_ftn12\">[12]<\/a> My translation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref13\" id=\"_ftn13\">[13]<\/a> T.S.J. Hodges, Corin Wong, Elsa van der Wal: <em>Bookland Passport<\/em>,2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref14\" id=\"_ftn14\">[14]<\/a> Page 2023, p. 908.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref15\" id=\"_ftn15\">[15]<\/a> Page 2023, p. 917.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref16\" id=\"_ftn16\">[16]<\/a> Page 2023, p. 908.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref17\" id=\"_ftn17\">[17]<\/a> Antoine Cassar: <em>Passeport<\/em>. French translation by Elizabeth Grech, Fa\u00ef Fioc, Montpellier 2017. Initially selfpublished in Maltese, 2009. Project website: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.passaportproject.org\">http:\/\/www.passaportproject.org<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref18\" id=\"_ftn18\">[18]<\/a> The project\u2019s website states that only the Maltese edition is available anymore, though I still acquired a French edition in late 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref19\" id=\"_ftn19\">[19]<\/a> Cf. H\u00e4kli 2015, p. 88.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref20\" id=\"_ftn20\">[20]<\/a> H\u00e4kli recounts the example of Edward Snowden, whose US passport was revoked while he was travelling through Moscow in 2013, effectively stranding him there. Cf. H\u00e4kli 2015, p. 85 f.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref21\" id=\"_ftn21\">[21]<\/a> Keshavarz 2018, p. 18.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref22\" id=\"_ftn22\">[22]<\/a> S\u00e9bastien Conard, <em>Passeport<\/em>, imprint. My translation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref23\" id=\"_ftn23\">[23]<\/a> Ahmad Hammoud: <em>Nationality n\/a: Passport for the Stateless<\/em>, 2015. URL: <a href=\"https:\/\/hammoud3000.com\/Nationality-n-a-Passport-for-the-Stateless\">https:\/\/hammoud3000.com\/Nationality-n-a-Passport-for-the-Stateless<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref24\" id=\"_ftn24\">[24]<\/a> Cf. Description on Hammoud\u2019s website, 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref25\" id=\"_ftn25\">[25]<\/a> Keshavarz 2018, p.5<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Even though there is, of course, no easy definition of what a book is exactly, a passport is an object that is very much like a book, without being usually considered to be one. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6377,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"wp-custom-template-post-template-features","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1994],"tags":[1953,1954],"class_list":["post-6376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","tag-publishing","tag-reading-readership"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6376"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6376\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6421,"href":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6376\/revisions\/6421"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharpweb.org\/sharpnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}