The best books about Ukraine

артбук Скриня. Речі Сили/ фото Дзвінка Загайська

The exquisite art books, gift photo albums, children's fairy tales by The Ark Ukraine PH are a hymn to Ukrainian culture. We sought to highlight what is hidden in museum collections and private collections - masterpieces of Ukraine's cultural heritage known only to a limited number of specialists, bring them to the forefront and make them recognizable national brands that will identify Ukraine in the world.

These books have become unofficial state gifts, as they have ended up in the libraries of many presidents, patriarchs, and many other prominent personalities. And we are happy that the world sees our culture in such a printing "golden" frame. Now these books are publicly available to all Ukrainians for free.

The "Ark Ukraine" PH opens up six unique art editions about Ukrainian heritage for free download: two art books "The Hope Chest. Ukrainian treasures" and "The Ark Ukraine", one children's art book "The Ukrainian Bride", a book on Ukrainian musical heritage "The Ark Ukraine: Music", a Christmas fairy tale from Lviv "In the Land of Cheese Horses" and an illustrated mini-encyclopedia on how to celebrate Christmas "The School of Christmas".

артбук "Скриня. Речі Сили", фото Дзвінки Загайської

The Hope Chest. Ukrainian treasures

Exclusive deluxe edition on the traditional heritage of Ukraine with special features - die cutting, foil stamping, blind embossing, textured varnish.

We went across all the regions of Ukraine in quest of folk treasures and came up with a list of Ukrainian must-haves – the things that should belong in hearts and homes of every Ukrainian. We carefully packed them in our Hope Chest as if it were a cultural Ark preserving its treasures from the outpour of globalizing floods — so that they may be returned to where they belong.

The art book has become a visiting card of Ukraine, found its way into the libraries of many presidents and famous world figures, and has been translated into English and French. Created by Yaryna Vynnytska, Yulia Tabenska, Dmytro Osypov. The Best Book Award of Lviv's Book Forum 2016, personal award from the Mayor of Lviv.

The Ark Ukraine

Exclusive deluxe edition on the cultural heritage of Ukraine with special features - die cutting, foil stamping, blind embossing, textured varnish. This is a book of initiation, a journey through thousands of years of Ukrainian history and culture. The artbook The Ark "Ukraine" comprises all cultural heritage of Ukraine under one cover: artifacts of traditional culture, masterpieces of professional art, symbols and archetypes, prominent historical and cultural figures - all that deserves the status of “Ukrainian brand”.

The author and curator of the art book is a writer and cultural manager Yaryna Vynnytska. The project united the best artists and graphic designers, which makes it a symbolic "art ark" of Ukraine - Yulia Tabenska, Olena Smetana, Marko Halanevych (lead singer of the band DakhaBrakha, who can not only sing but also draw), Maria Bilinska, Anna Girenko, Ostap Lozynsky, Andriy Yermolenko, Olga Tkachenko, Kateryna Dendyuk.

Christmas editions
In the country of Cheese Horses

Charming Christmas city of Lviv with its fragrant delicacies, folk crafts and fascinating story of a little girl Barbara, who during the magic night when St. Nicholas brings presents to children, travels with him to the Christmas workshops, in the Carpathian mountains where she meets the Black Shaman and saves the Spirit of Christmas.

Along with the book, you will learn how to bake Mykolaychyky (traditional Ukrainian holiday cookies), paint Hutsul icons on glass, make cheese horses (tradition of Ukrainian highlanders), knit straw spiders (ancient Christmas tradition of Ukraine). The author of the fairy tale is Yaryna Vynnytska, and the artwork is a creative experiment of three unique artists - Yulia Tabenska, world-renowned graphic artist Oleh Denysenko, and icon painter Ostap Lozynsky.

The School of Ukrainian Christmas

Ukrainian Christmas guide book contains 12 traditional artefacts of Ukrainian Christmas tradition as well as long-forgotten carols and special Christmas recipes - with this art book they get a chance to survive.

Our ancient Christmas traditions are still alive. It is not a reconstruction, not a museum artefact or a memory of the past - Ukrainians still goes carolling from house to house with a Christmas star and charm the frost with kutia (ritual Christmas dish made of wheat berries, honey and poppy seeds).

In The School of Ukrainian Christmas you will find out how to prepare for the holidays – recipes of traditional Ukrainian Christmas dishes and instructions on how to make special ancient Christmas decorations. Created by Yaryna Vynnytska and Olena Smetana.

артбук "Ковчег: музика"

The Ark Ukraine: Ukrainian music heritage

This is a guide book to Ukrainian musical heritage – from archaic pre-Christian carols to the XX century hit song "Chervona Ruta". This is an interactive book, where you can listen to Ukrainian music through QR codes on the You-tube channel of the project.

The most prominent figures of the Ukrainian musical pantheon, unique musical instruments, interesting facts and tragical biographies of Ukrainian composers - we have prepared a short illustrated tour into the world of Ukrainian music (and yes, we made an attempt to describe music in words).

We would like to take you behind the curtains of this enchanting world, to shed the spotlight on long-forgotten music treasures and names...so that one evening you would search for the names of Maxim Berezovsky, Valentin Sylvestrov, Dmytro Bortnyansky, Vasyl Barvinsky and many others and listen to the Ukrainian cosmos.

The Ukrainian Bride

Children's art book The Ukrainian Bride is a journey into the world of traditional wedding costume. Is it possible to be a queen in a homespun shirt? We present the rich variety of Ukrainian traditional attire from different regions of Ukraine and teach to value and distinguish them. And perhaps one day a girl will decide to become a queen in a homespun shirt.

This project was created together with the Ivan Honchar National Museum, based on its museum collection, as well as the collections of famous Ukrainian antique collectors such as Roksoliana Shymchuk, Ulyana Yavna, Viktor Yushchenko, and the Adenchyk-Badenchyk children's clothing workshop. The art book was created by Yaryna Vynnytska and Yulia Tabenska.