Fair Use of resources on this website

Handshouse Studio is an educational organization. At the core of our mission is sharing. We encourage use of our interpretation of the Gwoździec synagogue for educational purposes, but we do ask that if you are publishing any of our images or depictions of portions of the Handshouse Gwozdziec Re!construction, you contact us for permission. Handshouse Studio holds a copyright of the 2-D artwork, Derivative Work based on the 17th century painting of ceiling of Gwoździec Synagogue. Trillium Studios holds a copyright to the digital composite of the Handshouse Gwoździec Re!construction ceiling painting. For more questions or to request rights to use our materials, Contact Us Here

Reconstruction vs. Replication

The Handshouse Studio Gwoździec synagogue reconstruction is a reconstruction. We do not consider this work a restoration, because there was nothing left of the original synagogue to restore.

We do not consider our work a replica, because we did not have the original, or enough archival information documenting the original, to ensure that our work was an exact replication.

Handshouse Studio does everything it can to honor time, tools, materials, process of the original makers.

Working from architectural drawings, existing wooden polish structures from the time period, and collaborating with the Timber Framers Guild to bring together living expertise of many of the best traditional carpenters from around the world, we were able to reconstruct the timber roof and log walls with great accuracy.

The extensive archival photographs of the original Gwoździec synagogue interior offered a nearly complete view of the imagery that covered the prayer hall. Handshouse participants analyized these archival records to create drawings of the imagery shown. But with the ceilings complex curved surface, the archival photographs offered a skewed perspective, water damaged areas of the original ceiling left sections unclear. As a result, the archival recording of the ceiling painting imagery is still incomplete. The black and white photographs offered an exceptional archival resource with which to piece together the full ceiling, with necessary additional research to allow for cross-referencing what the photos do not clearly depict.

The colors used in our reconstruction were painted with historic distemper paints and period pigments selected referencing archival color studies of Gwoździec synagogue, as well as records of other Polish synagogues and painted churches of the time period, local tapestries, and records of what pigments were used at the time. This analysis informed all the color decision making. We are careful to explain that our reconstruction is a Derivative Work because there is no complete record of the original colors of Gwoździec synagogue available to ensure that our color choices were replications of the original. The 1914 color study by Alois Breier of the original Gwoździec synagogue, the primary archival color reference used for Handshouse Gwoździec synagogue reconstruction, depicts two thirds of the North section of the Gwoździec synagogue ceiling painting. This gave us a “Rosetta Stone” of information from which to select the color pallet of our complete reconstruction, thus our reconstruction colors are the result of extensive research and informed decision making. 

For more questions or to request rights to use our materials, Contact Us Here