Perceiving Nationhood Passports

Four objects · Three imagined worlds

Open a passport.
Enter its perspective.

A familiar document beside three competing visions of Lebanon. Start anywhere; each book keeps your place.

The reference presents the 2016 Lebanese cover. The imagined passports show 2026 engraved cover studies; the twelve visa-page prints remain the originals.

Reference

Lebanese biometric passport

CoverThe document before the imagined states

The document before the imagined statesCoverDocumentary cover photograph · 2016
Documentary cover photograph; official specimens are linked in the reading index.
Page notes · Reference / Cover
The document before the imagined states
Image & symbols
Documentary reference
The source of the reference
A public photograph of the Lebanese biometric passport cover provides a point of comparison. The edition is the 2016 design, catalogued by PRADO as LBN-AO-02001.
This reference presents the documentary exterior. Official specimen imagery is available through the source links.
Photograph: Da3ouk, 2016 · Wikimedia Commons.
PRADO · 2016 edition & official specimens ↗Lebanese General Security · biometric passport ↗Photograph: Da3ouk, 2016 · Wikimedia Commons ↗
Image sources & context
PRADO · 2016 edition & official specimens ↗Lebanese General Security · biometric passport ↗Photograph: Da3ouk, 2016 · Wikimedia Commons ↗
Page text
Documentary reference
A public photograph of the Lebanese biometric passport cover provides a point of comparison. The edition is the 2016 design, catalogued by PRADO as LBN-AO-02001.
This reference presents the documentary exterior. Official specimen imagery is available through the source links.
Photograph: Da3ouk, 2016 · Wikimedia Commons.

Passport 01

Introductory leafFront coverEngraved cover study · 2026
Imagined voices, critical reflection. These texts do not represent the artist’s personal beliefs or endorsements.
Page notes · Passport 01 / Front cover
Introductory leaf
Image & symbols
Front cover · Digital study, 2026
Many traditions, one claim of refuge
A cedar of interwoven ornamental traditions sits below a quiet band of seven written names for Lebanon. Arabic, English and French lead into Armenian, Syriac, Greek and a Phoenician-script rendering of lbnn. This is a selected multilingual gesture of shared belonging, not an exhaustive inventory of the country’s communities.
The redesigned emblem is rendered as a recessed engraving in the cover stock. The back cover is the last stop in this passport.
Image sources & context
The Phoenician-script lbnn is a contemporary typographic rendering; it is not presented as a facsimile of an ancient inscription. Modern Arabic type: Noto Kufi Arabic. Additional scripts use Noto and DM Sans; all font licences remain with the project.
Syriaca: Arabic and Syriac names ↗
Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Lebanon ↗
Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Lebanon ↗
Unicode: Phoenician characters ↗
Page text
Original introduction · imagined voice
Introductory Leaf: This Lebanese passport celebrates the guardianship of minority heritage. It honors the Maronite, Druze, Jewish, Armenian, and other Levantine communities whose faiths, languages, and customs entwine to form a single promise: that Lebanon will remain a haven of inter-belief harmony and coexistence. Each page that follows illuminates a thread in that living tapestry.
Read against the image
The promise of protection. The question of who defines belonging.
Digital reading guide · 2026
Light & ink
Engraved into the cover
The central design is recessed into the coloured stock; headings and passport marks retain their gold finish. Choose Reflection to examine the surface as it turns.
Digital cover interpretation, 2026. The surface and light are digital simulations.
Mountain Stewards of WisdomPage 022023 original · Digital light interpretation available
Imagined voices, critical reflection. These texts do not represent the artist’s personal beliefs or endorsements.
Page notes · Passport 01 / Page 02
Mountain Stewards of Wisdom
Image & symbols
A reading of the graphic
People within the landscape
The imagined memo centers the Druze community and a relationship to Mount Lebanon. Figures and architectural traces sit low within the pale field. Their subdued treatment asks the viewer to look closely, as though history has become part of the paper itself.
Low contrast, deliberate presence
The figures emerge gradually from the page rather than standing apart as a conventional portrait.
A selected history
This page gives one community a place in a national document. The surrounding pages reveal how that selection becomes a larger narrative.
Image sources & context
Visual reference
These reference images offer context for the subjects in the artwork. They are not confirmed source images for the original collages.
Archival portrait catalogued as “Druse [Druze] man,” Matson Collection, 1898–1946. The catalogue title does not establish a Lebanese location.
Matson Collection · Public domain · Source & full imageUncropped image; Wikimedia preview size where available.
Page text
Original printer’s memo · imagined voice
High in Lebanon’s ranges, the Ajawid of the Druze tradition model humility and scholarship as they cultivate land and mind alike. Their continuity—protected by the Republic’s pledge to safeguard every confession—fortifies the nation’s mosaic and keeps alive a lore of balance, reason, and service.
Imagined state voice
The republic safeguards the mountain's communities, their institutions and their inherited ways of life. The nation endures because its traditions endure.
Read against the image Does protection preserve a community's freedom, or make inherited identity the condition of belonging?
New text for the 2026 digital interpretation, written in the passport’s imagined state voice. It is not a quotation from a historical government or the people pictured.
Light & ink
In the hidden ink
Arabicالموحّدون Al-Muwahhidun — the Unitarians
The small community name follows the building’s cornice. The original star and mountain architecture receive finer engraved contours. Distinct scripts give the represented communities their own place within the passport.
The modest inscription follows a building cornice. Engraved bands continue the roof and landscape rhythms; the people and existing star retain their original prominence.
The Arabic self-designation follows the community terminology used by the Lebanese Druze Council. It is a small page-specific inscription within a passport that also gives Armenian and Syriac their own space.
Community terminology — Druze Council
The words and motifs are additions to the digital edition, written within the passport’s imagined perspective. They are not statements of the artist’s personal position.
This page under light
Each community receives a distinct graphic treatment: architectural contours for the Druze page, a palm engraving and Syriac liturgical lettering, a Syriac home inscription beside the map, and Armenian lettering with an eternity sign at the memorial. Fine intaglio lines follow the source composition.
Ambient shows the original image in even lighting. Reflection reveals the simulated surface sheen as the passport turns. Full UV lights all the fluorescent lettering and ornaments at once.
Light effects are part of the 2026 digital interpretation of this page.
The open spread
The original print is the sharper right-hand page. The facing leaf is a softened mirror of that same artwork, added for this digital presentation. It is not a separate numbered design from the 2023 work.
Digital engraving interpretation · 2026
These digital engraving interpretations build on the original 2023 illustrations. Page notes identify the imagery and its sources. Choose Ambient for even lighting, Reflection to examine the surface, or Full UV to reveal the added inscriptions and ornaments.
Fine hatching and controlled burgundy, green and blue ink tones clarify the existing scenes. The additional inscriptions and ornaments remain separately composed for each passport.
Council of the European Union — PRADO glossary UK Home Office — Basic passport checks Koenig & Bauer — Note Printing Australia passport printing
The printing references guide color and linework in this artwork.
Original page image ↗
Palm Branches of RenewalPage 052023 original · Digital light interpretation available
Imagined voices, critical reflection. These texts do not represent the artist’s personal beliefs or endorsements.
Page notes · Passport 01 / Page 05
Palm Branches of Renewal
Image & symbols
A reading of the graphic
Ritual as collective memory
A Palm Sunday procession brings a public ritual into a private travel document. The cross, canopy and gathered bodies form a layered image of community. The imagined memo reads these signs as renewal; the graphic lets ritual and belonging occupy the same surface.
Procession and gathering
Follow the movement of the crowd across the lower part of the page.
Religious imagery
The reference icon offers context for Palm Sunday. It depicts the religious subject, not the particular procession in the collage.
Image sources & context
Visual reference
These reference images offer context for the subjects in the artwork. They are not confirmed source images for the original collages.
Palm Sunday icon, Jerusalem school, 19th century; Saint-Simeon Church, Zabbougha, Lebanon.
Jerusalem school; photograph by Michel Bakni · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & full imageUncropped image; Wikimedia preview size where available.
Page text
Original printer’s memo · imagined voice
Today’s Palm Sunday parades, woven with fronds and flickering candles, echo far older Phoenician rites to Adonis, deity of rebirth and vegetation. The seamless layering of Christian liturgy atop ancestral ritual reveals Lebanon’s gift for synthesizing cultures into a faith-infused continuum.
Imagined state voice
Let every community keep its calendar, its sacred language and its ceremonies. Our common life is secured through the continuity of our differences.
Read against the image Who belongs when public identity is organized around inherited religious traditions?
New text for the 2026 digital interpretation, written in the passport’s imagined state voice. It is not a quotation from a historical government or the people pictured.
Light & ink
In the hidden ink
Syriacܐܘܫܥܢܐ Hosanna
A finely cut Syriac inscription accompanies the palm stem. Feathered fronds and woven lines grow from the procession’s existing details. The small Phoenician alphabet fragment remains on the paving, as a separate layer of the imagined narrative.
Syriac lettering follows the rise of a palm stem, away from faces and the canopy. Fine fronds extend the source drawing, while the Phoenician fragment stays small on the paving.
The small signs are the individual Phoenician letters alf, bet and lamd (𐤀, 𐤁, 𐤋). They are an alphabet reference, not an ancient quotation or a claim that every community shares one ancestry.
Phoenician character reference · Noto font & license
Syriac refers here to a Levantine Christian liturgical heritage. The word is Hosanna, associated with Palm Sunday; it is not a claim that every person in the photograph shares one denomination or spoken language.
Syriac wording — English–Syriac dictionary, page 16 Palm Sunday and the Syriac liturgical tradition
The words and motifs are additions to the digital edition, written within the passport’s imagined perspective. They are not statements of the artist’s personal position.
This page under light
Each community receives a distinct graphic treatment: architectural contours for the Druze page, a palm engraving and Syriac liturgical lettering, a Syriac home inscription beside the map, and Armenian lettering with an eternity sign at the memorial. Fine intaglio lines follow the source composition.
Ambient shows the original image in even lighting. Reflection reveals the simulated surface sheen as the passport turns. Full UV lights all the fluorescent lettering and ornaments at once.
Light effects are part of the 2026 digital interpretation of this page.
The open spread
The original print is the sharper right-hand page. The facing leaf is a softened mirror of that same artwork, added for this digital presentation. It is not a separate numbered design from the 2023 work.
Digital engraving interpretation · 2026
These digital engraving interpretations build on the original 2023 illustrations. Page notes identify the imagery and its sources. Choose Ambient for even lighting, Reflection to examine the surface, or Full UV to reveal the added inscriptions and ornaments.
Fine hatching and controlled burgundy, green and blue ink tones clarify the existing scenes. The additional inscriptions and ornaments remain separately composed for each passport.
Council of the European Union — PRADO glossary UK Home Office — Basic passport checks Koenig & Bauer — Note Printing Australia passport printing
The printing references guide color and linework in this artwork.
Original page image ↗
Patriarch & ProtectoratePage 082023 original · Digital light interpretation available
Imagined voices, critical reflection. These texts do not represent the artist’s personal beliefs or endorsements.
Page notes · Passport 01 / Page 08
Patriarch & Protectorate
Image & symbols
A reading of the graphic
Who gets to stand for a beginning?
A clerical portrait rises above a historical gathering. The visual hierarchy makes a person, an institution and a founding narrative appear closely bound. Read this beside the imagined memo, while keeping its rhetoric distinct from the historical record.
Portrait above assembly
The large face and smaller crowd establish different scales of historical authority.
A document within a document
Archival imagery lends the imagined passport the appearance of historical evidence.
Image sources & context
Historical context
The original memo names Elias Doueihi in connection with 1920. AUB’s archive instead identifies Patriarch Elias Pierre Hoyek in its correspondence about the declaration of Greater Lebanon. The original artwork text is preserved here; this note makes the distinction visible.
Read the 1920 correspondence at AUB
Visual reference
These reference images offer context for the subjects in the artwork. They are not confirmed source images for the original collages.
Proclamation of Greater Lebanon, Pine Residence, Beirut, 1 September 1920.
Unknown photographer · Public domain · Source & full imageUncropped image; Wikimedia preview size where available.
Page text
Original printer’s memo · imagined voice
The 1920 proclamation of the State of Greater Lebanon—secured through the resolute diplomacy of Maronite Patriarch Elias Doueihi and the steadfast backing of France—transformed a crossroads of peoples into a constitutional republic. By delineating borders that honored the distinct character of Mount Lebanon and its wider sphere of influence, the Patriarch and his French allies forged a polity in which every community could flourish under law. Their alliance inscribed both the Maronite Church and France into the very architecture of modern Lebanon, affirming their pivotal role in safeguarding the nation’s plural heritage and republican destiny.
Imagined state voice
Within these borders, our communities shall find a lasting home. The republic honors the institutions and alliances that safeguard our plural inheritance.
Read against the image Which institutions gain authority when a founding story is presented as the protection of everyone?
New text for the 2026 digital interpretation, written in the passport’s imagined state voice. It is not a quotation from a historical government or the people pictured.
Light & ink
In the hidden ink
Syriacܒܝܬܐ Home / house
The Syriac word for home sits at the map’s outer edge. Fine contour bands and an open architectural rhythm frame the space beside the patriarch, keeping the portrait and historical assembly clear.
A short Syriac inscription is tucked beside the map. Parallel contours follow that edge, leaving a quiet gap around the patriarch’s face and the original flags.
The Syriac script recalls the Maronite Church’s liturgical heritage. “Home” is a new curatorial inscription within this passport’s imagined shelter narrative, not a quotation from the patriarch or a historical slogan.
Syriac wording — English–Syriac dictionary, page 16
The words and motifs are additions to the digital edition, written within the passport’s imagined perspective. They are not statements of the artist’s personal position.
This page under light
Each community receives a distinct graphic treatment: architectural contours for the Druze page, a palm engraving and Syriac liturgical lettering, a Syriac home inscription beside the map, and Armenian lettering with an eternity sign at the memorial. Fine intaglio lines follow the source composition.
Ambient shows the original image in even lighting. Reflection reveals the simulated surface sheen as the passport turns. Full UV lights all the fluorescent lettering and ornaments at once.
Light effects are part of the 2026 digital interpretation of this page.
The open spread
The original print is the sharper right-hand page. The facing leaf is a softened mirror of that same artwork, added for this digital presentation. It is not a separate numbered design from the 2023 work.
Digital engraving interpretation · 2026
These digital engraving interpretations build on the original 2023 illustrations. Page notes identify the imagery and its sources. Choose Ambient for even lighting, Reflection to examine the surface, or Full UV to reveal the added inscriptions and ornaments.
Fine hatching and controlled burgundy, green and blue ink tones clarify the existing scenes. The additional inscriptions and ornaments remain separately composed for each passport.
Council of the European Union — PRADO glossary UK Home Office — Basic passport checks Koenig & Bauer — Note Printing Australia passport printing
The printing references guide color and linework in this artwork.
Original page image ↗
The Armenian ChapterPage 112023 original · Digital light interpretation available
Imagined voices, critical reflection. These texts do not represent the artist’s personal beliefs or endorsements.
Page notes · Passport 01 / Page 11
The Armenian Chapter
Image & symbols
A reading of the graphic
A gesture that carries memory
A monumental raised form and a gathering of people connect public commemoration with the Armenian chapter of the passport. Their overlap makes remembrance both a physical place and a shared act. The memoir-like tone of the imagined text is one of the national perspectives the work puts into conversation.
Monument and body
Notice how the upward gesture remains legible even as the image dissolves into the page.
Memory and belonging
The assembly gives scale to the monument and places remembrance within a living community.
Image sources & context
Visual reference
These reference images offer context for the subjects in the artwork. They are not confirmed source images for the original collages.
Armenian Genocide memorial, Bikfaya, photographed in 2009.
Serouj (courtesy of Rita) · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Source & full imageUncropped image; Wikimedia preview size where available.
Page text
Original printer’s memo · imagined voice
What began as a refuge became a homeland: Armenians who arrived fleeing catastrophe now form an indispensable strand of Lebanon’s social fabric. Through industry, art, and civic life they have enriched the Nation, proving that compassion for the displaced can blossom into enduring citizenship.
Imagined state voice
The nation receives memory alongside the people who carry it. Language, craft and remembrance shall remain visible signs of a community's place in the republic.
Read against the image Can belonging extend beyond the cultural contributions a state chooses to celebrate?
New text for the 2026 digital interpretation, written in the passport’s imagined state voice. It is not a quotation from a historical government or the people pictured.
Light & ink
In the hidden ink
ArmenianՅիշատակ Remembrance
Armenian takes the leading place in the added lettering. A small remembrance inscription sits beneath the existing Armenian text, while fine interlaced lines climb beside the memorial. An Armenian eternity sign accompanies its base.
The Armenian word is a small counterline below the original Armenian inscription. An interlaced engraving rises with the memorial rather than creating a separate headline.
Յիշատակ uses traditional Armenian orthography. The added word and eternity sign celebrate Armenian memory and continuity in Lebanon.
Armenian wording in parallel Armenian–English usage Armenian eternity sign — Unicode character reference
The words and motifs are additions to the digital edition, written within the passport’s imagined perspective. They are not statements of the artist’s personal position.
This page under light
Each community receives a distinct graphic treatment: architectural contours for the Druze page, a palm engraving and Syriac liturgical lettering, a Syriac home inscription beside the map, and Armenian lettering with an eternity sign at the memorial. Fine intaglio lines follow the source composition.
Ambient shows the original image in even lighting. Reflection reveals the simulated surface sheen as the passport turns. Full UV lights all the fluorescent lettering and ornaments at once.
Light effects are part of the 2026 digital interpretation of this page.
The open spread
The original print is the sharper right-hand page. The facing leaf is a softened mirror of that same artwork, added for this digital presentation. It is not a separate numbered design from the 2023 work.
Digital engraving interpretation · 2026
These digital engraving interpretations build on the original 2023 illustrations. Page notes identify the imagery and its sources. Choose Ambient for even lighting, Reflection to examine the surface, or Full UV to reveal the added inscriptions and ornaments.
Fine hatching and controlled burgundy, green and blue ink tones clarify the existing scenes. The additional inscriptions and ornaments remain separately composed for each passport.
Council of the European Union — PRADO glossary UK Home Office — Basic passport checks Koenig & Bauer — Note Printing Australia passport printing
The printing references guide color and linework in this artwork.
Original page image ↗
Lebanon, in many voicesBack coverDigital back-cover study · 2026
Page notes · Passport 01 / Back cover
Lebanon, in many voices
Image & symbols
Back cover · Digital study, 2026
Lebanon, in many voices
Arabic
لبنانSource ↗
Lebanese · Latin transliteration
LibnēnSource ↗
Syriac
ܠܒܢܢSource ↗
Armenian
ԼիբանանSource ↗
Greek
ΛίβανοςSource ↗
Turkish
LübnanSource ↗
Hebrew
לבנוןSource ↗
Seven interlaced ribbons hold the name Lebanon in seven written forms. Each has three inscriptions, distributed through a shared engraved field without a dominant script. The open centre and fine, low-contrast lines make this a material detail of the cover, rather than a catalogue of identities. These languages are a selected multilingual gesture, not an exhaustive inventory of Lebanese communities.
“Libnēn” is a Latin transliteration of spoken Lebanese; its Arabic-script spelling is shared with the Arabic name. The inscriptions are live typeset text, not invented marks inside a generated image.
Page text
Back cover · Digital study, 2026
Seven interlaced ribbons hold the name Lebanon in seven written forms. Each has three inscriptions, distributed through a shared engraved field without a dominant script. The open centre and fine, low-contrast lines make this a material detail of the cover, rather than a catalogue of identities. These languages are a selected multilingual gesture, not an exhaustive inventory of Lebanese communities.
Light & ink
Printed surface and reflected light
Turn the cover under reflected light to catch the fine inscriptions and engraved ornament.
A digital material interpretation, developed in 2026. It does not document a manufactured passport or security feature.
View the front cover ↗

Passport 02

Lebanon Within the Arab Nation

Front coverIntroductory leaf
Page 04Flag of Emancipation
Page 09Voices That Bind a Region
Page 13South Lebanon Liberated
Page 25Champions of a Common Cause
Back coverA nation within a league

Introductory leafFront coverEngraved cover study · 2026
Imagined voices, critical reflection. These texts do not represent the artist’s personal beliefs or endorsements.
Page notes · Passport 02 / Front cover
Introductory leaf
Image & symbols
Front cover · Digital study, 2026
A cedar written as Arab unity
Arabic calligraphy forms the cedar around الوحدة العربية — Arab unity. Language becomes the organizing image of this imagined political identity.
The redesigned emblem is rendered as a recessed engraving in the cover stock. The back cover is the last stop in this passport.
Image sources & context
Arabic calligraphy leads the cover. The only Latin inscription is Passport of the Republic of Lebanon; there is no French.
Page text
Original introduction · imagined voice
Introductory Leaf (as advocates might frame it): This Lebanese passport affirms our nation’s Eastern identity and its unbreakable bond with the broader Arab struggle against colonial domination. From vibrant Arabic calligraphy to solidarity with Palestine, each page proclaims Lebanon’s role as a living pillar in the architecture of Arab unity.
Read against the image
The promise of a shared identity. The question of what it absorbs.
Digital reading guide · 2026
Light & ink
Engraved into the cover
The central design is recessed into the coloured stock; headings and passport marks retain their gold finish. Choose Reflection to examine the surface as it turns.
Digital cover interpretation, 2026. The surface and light are digital simulations.
Flag of EmancipationPage 042023 original · Digital light interpretation available
Imagined voices, critical reflection. These texts do not represent the artist’s personal beliefs or endorsements.
Page notes · Passport 02 / Page 04
Flag of Emancipation
Image & symbols
A reading of the graphic
Writing across a public moment
Calligraphic forms spread across the pale field while a historical crowd gathers below. The imagined memo connects the page to independence and Majid Arslan. The composition brings written language and public action together, without giving either a completely separate boundary.
Calligraphy as atmosphere
Letterforms work at two scales: as writing and as a texture that extends over the photograph.
The crowd below
Look at how the dense gathering changes the weight of the otherwise open page.
Image sources & context
Historical context
The supplied artwork labels this Page 04; its original memo is headed Page 01. Both identifiers remain visible in the reader. The interpretation follows the supplied pairing.
Page text
Original printer’s memo · imagined voice
When French rule receded, the Lebanese standard rose anew. Emir Majid Arslan’s kiss upon that flag encapsulated a nation’s rebirth—an Eastern people casting off European tutelage and re-embracing its Arab lineage with unshakable pride.
Original memo heading: Page 01 — printer's memo
Imagined state voice
Lebanon's sovereignty finds its purpose in the freedom of the wider Arab world. Independence releases the nation from foreign tutelage and restores its place in a common destiny.
Read against the image What is left out when independence is made to confirm one regional identity?
New text for the 2026 digital interpretation, written in the passport’s imagined state voice. It is not a quotation from a historical government or the people pictured.
Light & ink
In the hidden ink
Arabicعربيّ وأفتخر Arab and proud
The phrase passes through an interlaced ornament, with the smaller words “هوية واستقلال” (“Identity and independence”). It voices this passport’s imagined connection between Arab identity and national emancipation.
The Ruqaa phrase follows the descending calligraphic field just above the crowd. A finer companion line shares that direction, letting the source lettering set the rhythm.
The words and motifs are additions to the digital edition, written within the passport’s imagined perspective. They are not statements of the artist’s personal position.
This page under light
Interlaced ribbons converge into a shared geometric center. Gold, green and violet lines move toward and away from alignment as the light changes, giving the imagined Arab-unity narrative a rhythm of cohesion and regional connection.
Ambient shows the original image in even lighting. Reflection reveals the simulated surface sheen as the passport turns. Full UV lights all the fluorescent lettering and ornaments at once.
Light effects are part of the 2026 digital interpretation of this page.
The open spread
The original print is the sharper right-hand page. The facing leaf is a softened mirror of that same artwork, added for this digital presentation. It is not a separate numbered design from the 2023 work.
Digital engraving interpretation · 2026
These digital engraving interpretations build on the original 2023 illustrations. Page notes identify the imagery and its sources. Choose Ambient for even lighting, Reflection to examine the surface, or Full UV to reveal the added inscriptions and ornaments.
Fine hatching and controlled burgundy, green and blue ink tones clarify the existing scenes. The additional inscriptions and ornaments remain separately composed for each passport.
Council of the European Union — PRADO glossary UK Home Office — Basic passport checks Koenig & Bauer — Note Printing Australia passport printing
The printing references guide color and linework in this artwork.
Original page image ↗
Voices That Bind a RegionPage 092023 original · Digital light interpretation available
Imagined voices, critical reflection. These texts do not represent the artist’s personal beliefs or endorsements.
Page notes · Passport 02 / Page 09
Voices That Bind a Region
Image & symbols
A reading of the graphic
Voices across borders
Umm Kulthum and Fairuz are brought into one layered musical space. The imagined memo treats their voices as a shared regional bond. Portraiture and calligraphy overlap so that an individual performer can also become an image of collective identification.
Two musical presences
Move the light over the portraits to inspect how each face meets the surrounding pattern.
A recurring figure
Fairuz returns in Passport 03, where the accompanying national narrative changes. Compare what the same cultural figure is asked to signify.
Image sources & context
Visual reference
These reference images offer context for the subjects in the artwork. They are not confirmed source images for the original collages.
Fairuz performing at Beiteddine, 2001.
Wissam Chidiak · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Source & full imageUncropped image; Wikimedia preview size where available.
Page text
Original printer’s memo · imagined voice
Fairuz and Umm Kulthum, luminous beacons of Arab artistry, have fused hearts from the Atlantic to the Gulf. Lebanon, cradle to one and champion of the other, nurtures this shared cultural patrimony—proof that our creative pulse beats in synchrony with every Arab capital.
Imagined state voice
Our voices cross the borders drawn between us. Shared language and song make the region audible as one cultural homeland.
Read against the image Can shared culture connect people without requiring them to share one political identity?
New text for the 2026 digital interpretation, written in the passport’s imagined state voice. It is not a quotation from a historical government or the people pictured.
Light & ink
In the hidden ink
Arabicعربيّ وأفتخر Arab and proud
The phrase appears within converging ribbons and sound-wave lines. “صوت يجمعنا” (“A voice unites us”) links the added ink to this page’s singers and its imagined shared cultural space.
The main phrase follows the outer curve of the singers’ layered portrait, beside the embroidered headdress. The smaller line traces the garment edge; neither crosses a face.
The words and motifs are additions to the digital edition, written within the passport’s imagined perspective. They are not statements of the artist’s personal position.
This page under light
Interlaced ribbons converge into a shared geometric center. Gold, green and violet lines move toward and away from alignment as the light changes, giving the imagined Arab-unity narrative a rhythm of cohesion and regional connection.
Ambient shows the original image in even lighting. Reflection reveals the simulated surface sheen as the passport turns. Full UV lights all the fluorescent lettering and ornaments at once.
Light effects are part of the 2026 digital interpretation of this page.
The open spread
The original print is the sharper right-hand page. The facing leaf is a softened mirror of that same artwork, added for this digital presentation. It is not a separate numbered design from the 2023 work.
Digital engraving interpretation · 2026
These digital engraving interpretations build on the original 2023 illustrations. Page notes identify the imagery and its sources. Choose Ambient for even lighting, Reflection to examine the surface, or Full UV to reveal the added inscriptions and ornaments.
Fine hatching and controlled burgundy, green and blue ink tones clarify the existing scenes. The additional inscriptions and ornaments remain separately composed for each passport.
Council of the European Union — PRADO glossary UK Home Office — Basic passport checks Koenig & Bauer — Note Printing Australia passport printing
The printing references guide color and linework in this artwork.
Original page image ↗
South Lebanon LiberatedPage 132023 original · Digital light interpretation available
Imagined voices, critical reflection. These texts do not represent the artist’s personal beliefs or endorsements.
Page notes · Passport 02 / Page 13
South Lebanon Liberated
Image & symbols
A reading of the graphic
A celebration and its framing
Flags and gathered bodies bring the image of liberation into the passport. The imagined memo frames the south through Arab solidarity. The washed surface keeps the scene embedded within a designed document, inviting attention to how a public event becomes a national symbol.
Flag and gathering
The crowd concentrates the page’s energy beneath the open, patterned field.
Image and rhetoric
Read the celebration alongside the memo’s particular political perspective, rather than as a neutral account of every experience of the event.
Image sources & context
Historical context
For a dated institutional record alongside the imagined memo, the UN Secretary-General’s statement of 16 June 2000 records confirmation of Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon in accordance with Security Council resolution 425.
Read the UN statement · 16 June 2000
Page text
Original printer’s memo · imagined voice
The 2000 liberation of the South stands as iron testimony to Lebanese resolve. Through unity and sacrifice, our land was reclaimed, igniting hope across Arab soil that occupation anywhere can be broken by steadfast defiance and communal will.
Imagined state voice
No nation's freedom stands alone. The recovery of our land belongs to a wider history of Arab emancipation, and its promise must be carried together.
Read against the image Whose experiences disappear when a contested event becomes a single triumphant national image?
New text for the 2026 digital interpretation, written in the passport’s imagined state voice. It is not a quotation from a historical government or the people pictured.
Light & ink
In the hidden ink
Arabicعربيّ وأفتخر Arab and proud
Interlocking lines carry the phrase alongside “سيادة وتضامن” (“Sovereignty and solidarity”). The addition extends the imagined rhetoric of this page without adding a new flag or territorial map.
The main phrase curves up beside the raised flag. A second, finer line follows the open band above the gathering, keeping the flag and existing South Lebanon lettering legible.
The words and motifs are additions to the digital edition, written within the passport’s imagined perspective. They are not statements of the artist’s personal position.
This page under light
Interlaced ribbons converge into a shared geometric center. Gold, green and violet lines move toward and away from alignment as the light changes, giving the imagined Arab-unity narrative a rhythm of cohesion and regional connection.
Ambient shows the original image in even lighting. Reflection reveals the simulated surface sheen as the passport turns. Full UV lights all the fluorescent lettering and ornaments at once.
Light effects are part of the 2026 digital interpretation of this page.
The open spread
The original print is the sharper right-hand page. The facing leaf is a softened mirror of that same artwork, added for this digital presentation. It is not a separate numbered design from the 2023 work.
Digital engraving interpretation · 2026
These digital engraving interpretations build on the original 2023 illustrations. Page notes identify the imagery and its sources. Choose Ambient for even lighting, Reflection to examine the surface, or Full UV to reveal the added inscriptions and ornaments.
Fine hatching and controlled burgundy, green and blue ink tones clarify the existing scenes. The additional inscriptions and ornaments remain separately composed for each passport.
Council of the European Union — PRADO glossary UK Home Office — Basic passport checks Koenig & Bauer — Note Printing Australia passport printing
The printing references guide color and linework in this artwork.
Original page image ↗
Champions of a Common CausePage 252023 original · Digital light interpretation available
Imagined voices, critical reflection. These texts do not represent the artist’s personal beliefs or endorsements.
Page notes · Passport 02 / Page 25
Champions of a Common Cause
Image & symbols
A reading of the graphic
Portraits of a common cause
Large portraits of Gamal Abdel Nasser and Yasser Arafat meet an overlapping field of calligraphy. The imagined memo assembles political figures into a story of Arab unity. The graphic makes that act of assembly visible: different histories share one compressed surface.
Faces at different scales
Consider how cropping, size and placement turn individual portraits into a collective political image.
The connective layer
Calligraphy carries the eye between the portraits and the surrounding page.
Page text
Before reading this imagined voice
Abdel Nasser and Yasser Arafat appear as choices of the simulated state. The artist opposes their presence in a passport meant to represent him.
Original printer’s memo · imagined voice
We honor visionaries—Emir Faisal, Jamāl ʿAbd an-Nāṣir, Yāsir ʿArafāt—whose devotion to Arab concord fortified Lebanon’s place within a single, interwoven destiny. Their legacy urges us onward in the shared pursuit of sovereignty, cooperation, and collective dignity.
Imagined state voice
Our republic stands with the builders of Arab unity. Their legacy binds our independence to the sovereignty and dignity of a wider people.
Read against the image What does a pantheon ask us to overlook about the people it turns into symbols?
New text for the 2026 digital interpretation, written in the passport’s imagined state voice. It is not a quotation from a historical government or the people pictured.
Light & ink
In the hidden ink
Arabicعربيّ وأفتخر Arab and proud
Interlinked circles and the smaller words “وحدة وتضامن” (“Unity and solidarity”) accompany the phrase. They make the imagined pan-Arab narrative explicit while keeping the figures in the original image distinct.
The phrase occupies the open wedge between the portraits, following their rising contour. The clasped hands and both faces remain unobstructed.
The words and motifs are additions to the digital edition, written within the passport’s imagined perspective. They are not statements of the artist’s personal position.
This page under light
Interlaced ribbons converge into a shared geometric center. Gold, green and violet lines move toward and away from alignment as the light changes, giving the imagined Arab-unity narrative a rhythm of cohesion and regional connection.
Ambient shows the original image in even lighting. Reflection reveals the simulated surface sheen as the passport turns. Full UV lights all the fluorescent lettering and ornaments at once.
Light effects are part of the 2026 digital interpretation of this page.
The open spread
The original print is the sharper right-hand page. The facing leaf is a softened mirror of that same artwork, added for this digital presentation. It is not a separate numbered design from the 2023 work.
Digital engraving interpretation · 2026
These digital engraving interpretations build on the original 2023 illustrations. Page notes identify the imagery and its sources. Choose Ambient for even lighting, Reflection to examine the surface, or Full UV to reveal the added inscriptions and ornaments.
Fine hatching and controlled burgundy, green and blue ink tones clarify the existing scenes. The additional inscriptions and ornaments remain separately composed for each passport.
Council of the European Union — PRADO glossary UK Home Office — Basic passport checks Koenig & Bauer — Note Printing Australia passport printing
The printing references guide color and linework in this artwork.
Original page image ↗
A nation within a leagueBack coverDigital back-cover study · 2026
Page notes · Passport 02 / Back cover
A nation within a league
Image & symbols
Back cover · Digital study, 2026
A nation within a league
A fine engraved field traces the League of Arab States. Lebanon keeps its geographic scale but catches a brighter foil and a small locator: a small country made politically central to this imagined regional identity.
1945
Lebanon was a founding member of the League of Arab States.
22 members
The map shows the later regional membership, rather than only the founding states.
Lebanon
A brighter outline and locator give it emphasis without enlarging its territory.
Read against the image
Does belonging to a wider Arab political community strengthen a Lebanese nationhood, or absorb its differences?
The founding membership is historical; making it the emblem of national identity is this passport’s ideological choice. The map is a simplified membership illustration, not an authoritative boundary map. Western Sahara is separately hatched; disputed boundaries otherwise follow the cited Natural Earth source.
Founding pact · 22 March 1945 ↗UN ESCWA · 22 member states ↗Map geometry · Natural Earth ↗
Page text
Back cover · Digital study, 2026
A fine engraved field traces the League of Arab States. Lebanon keeps its geographic scale but catches a brighter foil and a small locator: a small country made politically central to this imagined regional identity.
Light & ink
Printed surface and reflected light
Turn the cover under reflected light to catch the fine inscriptions and engraved ornament.
A digital material interpretation, developed in 2026. It does not document a manufactured passport or security feature.
View the front cover ↗

Passport 03

A Republic of Civic Freedoms

Front coverIntroductory leaf
Page 06Suffrage & Empowerment
Page 09Cultural Vanguard
Page 15Harbor of Compassion
Page 28Pulse of the Night
Back coverA contribution carried forward

Introductory leafFront coverEngraved cover study · 2026
Imagined voices, critical reflection. These texts do not represent the artist’s personal beliefs or endorsements.
Page notes · Passport 03 / Front cover
Introductory leaf
Image & symbols
Front cover · Digital study, 2026
A nation made of participants
Separate paths and small civic figures construct the cedar. The claim is participation and personal freedom; the question is whether that promise includes everyone.
The redesigned emblem is rendered as a recessed engraving in the cover stock. The back cover is the last stop in this passport.
Image sources & context
Modern Arabic type in Noto Kufi Arabic and English in DM Sans replace ornamental calligraphy.
Page text
Original introduction · imagined voice
Introductory Leaf (as proponents might frame it): This Lebanese passport honors a nation that dares to champion personal freedom, secular advocacy, and cultural vibrancy in a region often constrained by convention. From the earliest women’s suffrage in the Levant to trail-blazing LGBT organizations and a nightlife famed worldwide, Lebanon stands as proof that progressive ideals can take root—and flourish—in the Middle East.
Read against the image
The promise of openness. The question of who can enter.
Digital reading guide · 2026
Light & ink
Engraved into the cover
The central design is recessed into the coloured stock; headings and passport marks retain their gold finish. Choose Reflection to examine the surface as it turns.
Digital cover interpretation, 2026. The surface and light are digital simulations.
Suffrage & EmpowermentPage 062023 original · Digital light interpretation available
Imagined voices, critical reflection. These texts do not represent the artist’s personal beliefs or endorsements.
Page notes · Passport 03 / Page 06
Suffrage & Empowerment
Image & symbols
A reading of the graphic
Visibility and political participation
Women and a public gathering occupy different layers of the page. The imagined memo connects their presence to suffrage and empowerment. The image can be read as a claim about who should be visible in the national story, and who is allowed to participate in writing it.
Individuals and the public
The layered scale links personal presence with collective political life.
A present-day reference
The reference photograph shows a later demonstration. It offers context for public participation; it does not document the granting of voting rights.
Image sources & context
Historical context
The original memo cites 1952. The women’s movement timeline distinguishes rights granted to educated women on 4 November 1952 from the extension to all women on 18 February 1953.
Political rights for educated women · 1952 Political rights for all women · 1953
Visual reference
These reference images offer context for the subjects in the artwork. They are not confirmed source images for the original collages.
Women carrying Lebanese flags at a demonstration. The source lists inconsistent dates, so no event year is assigned here.
maryatexitzero · CC BY 2.0 · Source & full imageUncropped image; Wikimedia preview size where available.
Page text
Original printer’s memo · imagined voice
By extending the vote to women in 1952, Lebanon signaled its resolve to build an inclusive, forward-thinking republic. Today, Lebanese women shape political agendas, drive economic growth, and steer social discourse—living proof that equality strengthens the civic fabric.
Imagined state voice
No citizen's voice shall carry less weight by reason of gender. Participation is a right of citizenship, and the republic measures its progress by who can exercise it.
Read against the image How far does the image of equality travel beyond the right to cast a vote?
New text for the 2026 digital interpretation, written in the passport’s imagined state voice. It is not a quotation from a historical government or the people pictured.
Light & ink
In the hidden ink
Arabicحرية Freedom
A ballot entering an open box and the words “صوت لكلّ فرد” (“A voice for every person”) connect freedom to participation and suffrage, the subject of this page.
The words align with the ballot box’s edge beneath the voting gesture. The quieter geometric lettering and small ballot mark keep the women’s faces and hands clear.
The words and motifs are additions to the digital edition, written within the passport’s imagined perspective. They are not statements of the artist’s personal position.
This page under light
An open weave of paths and multiple intersections suggests participation, exchange and movement. Cyan, violet and blue ink shifts across a porous field with no single visual center, accompanying the imagined progressive-democracy narrative.
Ambient shows the original image in even lighting. Reflection reveals the simulated surface sheen as the passport turns. Full UV lights all the fluorescent lettering and ornaments at once.
Light effects are part of the 2026 digital interpretation of this page.
The open spread
The original print is the sharper right-hand page. The facing leaf is a softened mirror of that same artwork, added for this digital presentation. It is not a separate numbered design from the 2023 work.
Digital engraving interpretation · 2026
These digital engraving interpretations build on the original 2023 illustrations. Page notes identify the imagery and its sources. Choose Ambient for even lighting, Reflection to examine the surface, or Full UV to reveal the added inscriptions and ornaments.
Fine hatching and controlled burgundy, green and blue ink tones clarify the existing scenes. The additional inscriptions and ornaments remain separately composed for each passport.
Council of the European Union — PRADO glossary UK Home Office — Basic passport checks Koenig & Bauer — Note Printing Australia passport printing
The printing references guide color and linework in this artwork.
Original page image ↗
Cultural VanguardPage 092023 original · Digital light interpretation available
Imagined voices, critical reflection. These texts do not represent the artist’s personal beliefs or endorsements.
Page notes · Passport 03 / Page 09
Cultural Vanguard
Image & symbols
A reading of the graphic
Culture without a single register
Haifa Wehbe’s award portrait at upper left and Fairuz’s close-up at lower right share a translucent portrait field. The imagined memo brings different musical and popular-cultural registers into its account of a progressive Lebanon. Their juxtaposition broadens the kinds of public figures that a passport might ask to represent a country.
Distinct portraits
Haifa holds a globe-shaped award. Her face and the award were refined against a matching photograph for this digital interpretation; Fairuz’s close-up keeps its separate presence.
Compare the two Fairuz pages
Passport 02 places Fairuz alongside Umm Kulthum. Here, the pairing and the imagined political narrative change together.
Image sources & context
Haifa’s award portrait — visual reference
Visual reference
These reference images offer context for the subjects in the artwork. They are not confirmed source images for the original collages.
Fairuz performing at Beiteddine, 2001.
Wissam Chidiak · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Source & full imageUncropped image; Wikimedia preview size where available.
Page text
Original printer’s memo · imagined voice
From Fairuz’s timeless anthems to Haifa’s boundary-pushing pop, Lebanese artists project the country’s pluralism onto the global stage. Their success abroad—backed by a home audience that prizes creative freedom—underscores Lebanon’s commitment to a diverse, ever-evolving arts scene.
Imagined state voice
Our culture advances through voices that refuse a single mold. The republic celebrates the artist's freedom to experiment, to be visible and to address the world.
Read against the image Does the international visibility of a few artists establish freedom for everyone?
New text for the 2026 digital interpretation, written in the passport’s imagined state voice. It is not a quotation from a historical government or the people pictured.
Light & ink
In the hidden ink
Arabicحرية Freedom
Expanding lines travel out from an open center. “حرية التعبير” (“Freedom of expression”) connects the new ink to the original performers and their public cultural presence.
The lettering opens from the space beside the award into the field above the larger portrait. Fine radiating lines continue that direction without crossing either face.
The words and motifs are additions to the digital edition, written within the passport’s imagined perspective. They are not statements of the artist’s personal position.
This page under light
An open weave of paths and multiple intersections suggests participation, exchange and movement. Cyan, violet and blue ink shifts across a porous field with no single visual center, accompanying the imagined progressive-democracy narrative.
Ambient shows the original image in even lighting. Reflection reveals the simulated surface sheen as the passport turns. Full UV lights all the fluorescent lettering and ornaments at once.
Light effects are part of the 2026 digital interpretation of this page.
The open spread
The original print is the sharper right-hand page. The facing leaf is a softened mirror of that same artwork, added for this digital presentation. It is not a separate numbered design from the 2023 work.
Digital engraving interpretation · 2026
These digital engraving interpretations build on the original 2023 illustrations. Page notes identify the imagery and its sources. Choose Ambient for even lighting, Reflection to examine the surface, or Full UV to reveal the added inscriptions and ornaments.
Fine hatching and controlled burgundy, green and blue ink tones clarify the existing scenes. The additional inscriptions and ornaments remain separately composed for each passport.
Council of the European Union — PRADO glossary UK Home Office — Basic passport checks Koenig & Bauer — Note Printing Australia passport printing
The printing references guide color and linework in this artwork.
Original page image ↗
Harbor of CompassionPage 152023 original · Digital light interpretation available
Imagined voices, critical reflection. These texts do not represent the artist’s personal beliefs or endorsements.
Page notes · Passport 03 / Page 15
Harbor of Compassion
Image & symbols
A reading of the graphic
Movement, refuge and the right to belong
A chain of people reaches across a rocky edge, making support and mutual dependence visible within a document normally used to authorize movement. The imagined memo frames Lebanon through hospitality and refuge. In the digital interpretation, the Mediterranean and Raouché place that aspiration along a recognizable Lebanese shore.
The helping chain
Joined hands lead toward the person reaching from the right. The human gesture remains the focus of the composition.
A Lebanese shore
Raouché’s broad arched rock and separate companion stack rise behind the figures. Fine blue and teal water lines connect the landmark to the Mediterranean.
The passport’s contradiction
A travel document speaks here about people whose movement and belonging may be precarious.
Image sources & context
Historical context
This is part of a 2023 artwork. Dates and figures in its imagined memo belong to that original text. The contextual photograph was made in northern Lebanon in July 2014; it is not a current statistical account. The Mediterranean setting and Raouché rocks are symbolic additions requested by the artist for the 2026 digital interpretation; they do not identify the location of the original depicted event. The rock forms were studied from Aboluay’s public-domain photograph.
Raouché reference photograph — Aboluay, public domain
Visual reference
These reference images offer context for the subjects in the artwork. They are not confirmed source images for the original collages.
Syrian refugee children in a UNICEF temporary classroom, northern Lebanon, July 2014.
Russell Watkins/DFID · CC BY 2.0 · Source & full imageUncropped image; Wikimedia preview size where available.
Page text
Original printer’s memo · imagined voice
Hosting the world’s highest refugee-to-citizen ratio, Lebanon transforms empathy into policy. Robust schools, clinics, and Lebanese-led NGOs partner with global agencies to weave a safety net of hope—modeling solidarity amid crisis and reaffirming humanitarian leadership.
Imagined state voice
At this shore, the person seeking refuge shall be met as a human being before a category. Hospitality is a public obligation; dignity is a common claim.
Read against the image What distance separates the image of a welcoming shore from the conditions of refuge?
New text for the 2026 digital interpretation, written in the passport’s imagined state voice. It is not a quotation from a historical government or the people pictured.
Light & ink
In the hidden ink
Arabicحرية Freedom
An open threshold and paths continuing through it suggest refuge and movement. “كرامة وملاذ” (“Dignity and refuge”) connects the motif to the people and helping gestures already present in the print.
The words follow the waterline below the rescue gesture. The open passage mark sits at its edge, keeping the helping hands and movement between people visible.
The words and motifs are additions to the digital edition, written within the passport’s imagined perspective. They are not statements of the artist’s personal position.
This page under light
An open weave of paths and multiple intersections suggests participation, exchange and movement. Cyan, violet and blue ink shifts across a porous field with no single visual center, accompanying the imagined progressive-democracy narrative.
Ambient shows the original image in even lighting. Reflection reveals the simulated surface sheen as the passport turns. Full UV lights all the fluorescent lettering and ornaments at once.
Light effects are part of the 2026 digital interpretation of this page.
The open spread
The original print is the sharper right-hand page. The facing leaf is a softened mirror of that same artwork, added for this digital presentation. It is not a separate numbered design from the 2023 work.
Digital engraving interpretation · 2026
These digital engraving interpretations build on the original 2023 illustrations. Page notes identify the imagery and its sources. Choose Ambient for even lighting, Reflection to examine the surface, or Full UV to reveal the added inscriptions and ornaments.
Fine hatching and controlled burgundy, green and blue ink tones clarify the existing scenes. The additional inscriptions and ornaments remain separately composed for each passport.
Council of the European Union — PRADO glossary UK Home Office — Basic passport checks Koenig & Bauer — Note Printing Australia passport printing
The printing references guide color and linework in this artwork.
Original page image ↗
Pulse of the NightPage 282023 original · Digital light interpretation available
Imagined voices, critical reflection. These texts do not represent the artist’s personal beliefs or endorsements.
Page notes · Passport 03 / Page 28
Pulse of the Night
Image & symbols
A reading of the graphic
A city after dark
Nightlife enters the imagined passport through layered lights, bodies and an urban gathering. The memo uses Skybar as an image of cosmopolitan life. Within the passport, a scene of leisure becomes a proposition about freedom, visibility and the kind of city a nation chooses to project.
Light within the pale field
Look for the points of brightness that remain legible through the image’s abstraction.
A selective portrait of a city
A nightlife image represents one experience of Beirut. The work’s three passports invite comparison with the experiences emphasized elsewhere.
Image sources & context
Visual reference
These reference images offer context for the subjects in the artwork. They are not confirmed source images for the original collages.
Beirut at night, 2021. A cityscape reference, not a photograph of Skybar.
paul saad · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & full imageUncropped image; Wikimedia preview size where available.
Page text
Original printer’s memo · imagined voice
Whether at the once-iconic Skybar Beirut or its spin-offs across the region, Lebanese nightlife embodies a zest for life that attracts revelers worldwide. Sophisticated club culture, exported with flair, advertises a nation unafraid to celebrate openness, hospitality, and joie de vivre.
Imagined state voice
The city remains open to encounter, pleasure and self-expression. In its shared spaces, the republic sees a public life shaped by individual choice.
Read against the image Who can enter the spaces that a country uses to advertise its openness?
New text for the 2026 digital interpretation, written in the passport’s imagined state voice. It is not a quotation from a historical government or the people pictured.
Light & ink
In the hidden ink
Arabicحرية Freedom
An open constellation and the words “حرية أن نكون” (“Freedom to be”) connect the night scene to gathering, self-expression and participation in public life.
The phrase follows the balcony railing’s diagonal. A small open constellation sits among the upper lights, connecting freedom of assembly to the photograph’s shared space.
The words and motifs are additions to the digital edition, written within the passport’s imagined perspective. They are not statements of the artist’s personal position.
This page under light
An open weave of paths and multiple intersections suggests participation, exchange and movement. Cyan, violet and blue ink shifts across a porous field with no single visual center, accompanying the imagined progressive-democracy narrative.
Ambient shows the original image in even lighting. Reflection reveals the simulated surface sheen as the passport turns. Full UV lights all the fluorescent lettering and ornaments at once.
Light effects are part of the 2026 digital interpretation of this page.
A second city after dark
The UV overprint follows the balcony and the descending crowd. A small hand-drawn “FREE TO BE” inscription sits along the rail. “حرية أن نكون” (Freedom to be) follows fine interlaced lines near the lower edge. Their scale belongs to security printing: they reward close inspection while the gathering remains the principal image.
These are new inscriptions for the 2026 digital edition, not words documented at Skybar or attributed to anyone pictured. They perform this passport’s imagined openness. The question remains visible beside it: who can enter?
The open spread
The original print is the sharper right-hand page. The facing leaf is a softened mirror of that same artwork, added for this digital presentation. It is not a separate numbered design from the 2023 work.
Digital engraving interpretation · 2026
These digital engraving interpretations build on the original 2023 illustrations. Page notes identify the imagery and its sources. Choose Ambient for even lighting, Reflection to examine the surface, or Full UV to reveal the added inscriptions and ornaments.
Fine hatching and controlled burgundy, green and blue ink tones clarify the existing scenes. The additional inscriptions and ornaments remain separately composed for each passport.
Council of the European Union — PRADO glossary UK Home Office — Basic passport checks Koenig & Bauer — Note Printing Australia passport printing
The printing references guide color and linework in this artwork.
Original page image ↗
A contribution carried forwardBack coverDigital back-cover study · 2026
Page notes · Passport 03 / Back cover
A contribution carried forward
Image & symbols
Back cover · Digital study, 2026
A contribution carried forward
Thirty equal human figures surround a promise of dignity for all. The cover speaks with the imagined republic’s pride in Lebanon’s contribution to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and its commitment to keep advancing that promise. The historical date is a small supporting inscription.
1947–1948
Lebanon was one of eight states represented on the drafting committee.
Charles Malik
Lebanon’s representative was the Commission on Human Rights’ rapporteur and chaired the Third Committee during the 1948 debates.
10 Dec 1948
Lebanon voted in favour when the General Assembly adopted the Declaration.
Read against the image
What would it take for a country to live up to the universal rights it helped articulate?
The proud contribution and continuing pledge are written in this passport’s imagined state voice. The historical basis is Lebanon’s participation in drafting and its vote for adoption. The Declaration was adopted by a General Assembly vote, not signed as a treaty. Neither the pledge nor the ornament asserts that the state has fulfilled these rights; the graphic is not a United Nations seal.
UN · drafting committee and Charles Malik ↗UN · adoption vote, including Lebanon ↗UN · Declaration and Article 1 ↗
Page text
Back cover · Digital study, 2026
Thirty equal human figures surround a promise of dignity for all. The cover speaks with the imagined republic’s pride in Lebanon’s contribution to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and its commitment to keep advancing that promise. The historical date is a small supporting inscription.
Light & ink
Printed surface and reflected light
Turn the cover under reflected light to catch the fine inscriptions and engraved ornament.
A digital material interpretation, developed in 2026. It does not document a manufactured passport or security feature.
View the front cover ↗

Historical strip · 2023 ↗

"1863: Virginia and West Virginia Split Over Core Ethical Principles; Can a Nation Unify Without Agreeing on Human Rights? An Intrinsic or Externally Driven Decision?" | "Faith, Religion, and Ethno-religious Traditions: Drawing Parallels with the Irreparable India-Pakistan Partition in 1947, Fueled by British Colonial Legacy" | "1993: Czechoslovakia's Peaceful Divorce - A Study in Nationhood for Societies with Diverse Identities; Can External Powers Tip the Scales?" | "Yugoslavia's 1990s Breakup: The Perils of Suppressed Differences in Multicultural Nations, Exacerbated by Global Interests" | "Eritrea Gains Independence from Ethiopia in 1993: A Tale of Nationalism Born Out of Cultural Distinctiveness Amidst Foreign Intrigue" | "2011: South Sudan's Struggle for Autonomy - The Impact of Historical Marginalization on a Nation's Unity and the Role of Global Players" | "Ireland and Northern Ireland's Ongoing Conflict Since 1921: The Fragility of National Cohesion in the Face of Deep-seated Differences and British Influence" | "2014: Crimea Annexed by Russia - The Struggle for Identity Amid Competing Allegiances and External Powers, a Lesson in Ukraine's Pursuit for Sovereignty" | "1958-1961: United Arab Republic - Abdel Nasser's Vision of Arab Unity Falters Amid Conflicting National Interests and Tensions; Lebanon Refuses to Join"

The historical strip · 2023

Partitions, borders,
and the idea of separation.

The original text from the 2023 installation, presented in sequence. Choose a passage to read the original installation text.

← Back to passports

01 / Original installation text

"1863: Virginia and West Virginia Split Over Core Ethical Principles; Can a Nation Unify Without Agreeing on Human Rights? An Intrinsic or Externally Driven Decision?"

02 / Original installation text

"Faith, Religion, and Ethno-religious Traditions: Drawing Parallels with the Irreparable India-Pakistan Partition in 1947, Fueled by British Colonial Legacy"

03 / Original installation text

"1993: Czechoslovakia's Peaceful Divorce - A Study in Nationhood for Societies with Diverse Identities; Can External Powers Tip the Scales?"

04 / Original installation text

"Yugoslavia's 1990s Breakup: The Perils of Suppressed Differences in Multicultural Nations, Exacerbated by Global Interests"

05 / Original installation text

"Eritrea Gains Independence from Ethiopia in 1993: A Tale of Nationalism Born Out of Cultural Distinctiveness Amidst Foreign Intrigue"

06 / Original installation text

"2011: South Sudan's Struggle for Autonomy - The Impact of Historical Marginalization on a Nation's Unity and the Role of Global Players"

07 / Original installation text

"Ireland and Northern Ireland's Ongoing Conflict Since 1921: The Fragility of National Cohesion in the Face of Deep-seated Differences and British Influence"

08 / Original installation text

"2014: Crimea Annexed by Russia - The Struggle for Identity Amid Competing Allegiances and External Powers, a Lesson in Ukraine's Pursuit for Sovereignty"

09 / Original installation text

"1958-1961: United Arab Republic - Abdel Nasser's Vision of Arab Unity Falters Amid Conflicting National Interests and Tensions; Lebanon Refuses to Join"

Image & symbols

The source of the reference

Page text

Image & symbols

Page text

Light & ink

Image & symbols

People within the landscape

Page text

Light & ink

Image & symbols

Ritual as collective memory

Page text

Light & ink

Image & symbols

Who gets to stand for a beginning?

Page text

Light & ink

Image & symbols

A gesture that carries memory

Page text

Light & ink

Image & symbols

Page text

Light & ink

Image & symbols

Page text

Light & ink

Image & symbols

Writing across a public moment

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Light & ink

Image & symbols

Voices across borders

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Light & ink

Image & symbols

A celebration and its framing

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Light & ink

Image & symbols

Portraits of a common cause

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Light & ink

Image & symbols

Page text

Light & ink

Image & symbols

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Light & ink

Image & symbols

Visibility and political participation

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Light & ink

Image & symbols

Culture without a single register

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Light & ink

Image & symbols

Movement, refuge and the right to belong

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Light & ink

Image & symbols

A city after dark

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Light & ink