The Arithmetic of War: WWII Battles in 15 Infographics
Thousands of publications on the Second World War have been produced over the past decades, ranging from critical academic analyses to comic books and illustrated publications for children. The creators of this book have gone their own way. The Arithmetic of War tells the history through original infographics, specially designed for the book, taking readers to the fifteen battlefields of WWII. Creative synthesis of image and word was the main idea of the album. The goal was to make the book accessible to anyone, regardless of historical knowledge.
The publication contains 129 infographics, 60 maps, 298 archival photographs, and 40 drawings of weapons, vehicles, and aircraft. To ensure that the reader does not get lost in such extensive content, the album is designed in a limited colour palette, with use of just one font family. In addition, all chapters are arranged on a thick black timeline that runs horizontally throughout the book and visually ties it all together. Eighteen specialists from the Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk were involved in the realisation of the project. The result is an album consisting of 15 essential chapters, whose graphic and textual structure has been designed and composed in such a way as to provide readers with as much knowledge and experience as possible.
The book has been published in two language versions, Polish and English. Both are available on the publisher’s online shop.
The Arithmetic of War: WWII Battles in 15 Infographics was edited by Natalia Gawryluk and Karol Szejko and published by the Muzeum II Wojny Światowej w Gdańsk, Gdańsk 2022, ISBN 978–83–65957–43–6.
