“Umbra Hominis” is a book by the photographer and artist Peo Olsson that examines the dual nature of the archive. While archives organize, preserve and classify knowledge, they also conceal and internalize what they contain. The project reflects on how archival systems shape collective memory and influence the writing of history.

The book departs from the dismantling of a museum and its transition into storage. As objects and documents move from exhibition space to archive, established views of the world and its conventional figures begin to dissolve. Through rearrangements of archival material, familiar structures are unsettled and new constellations appear.

These shifts reveal how archives are not neutral repositories but frameworks through which history is organized and interpreted. The way archival materials are assembled and retrieved can subtly influence historical narratives and relations of power.

The publication includes a sewn-in 24-page insert printed in black on glossy paper with drawings by SANY (Samuel Nyholm).

The book also includes essays by Arno Böhler and Mattias Winslow.