The book Faces on Display: Icelanders and others at the Canary Museum was published by Sögufélagið at the end of the year 2023. The book is in Icelandic. It brings together parts of the research project Creating Europe through Racialized Mobilities (CERM), which deals with different aspects of (im)mobility in Europe, especially with regard to racism and the relationship between past and present in the legacy of imperialism. In Faces on display, the focus is on plaster busts of people from different parts of the world, made in the 19th century. The research focuses on museums in the Canary Islands, mainland of Spain and France, and analyses transnational relationships that were created through race science. The plaster busts are connected to the history of race science and the book traces the history of the collection but also the the making of individual plaster busts or as it says in the text of the book itself:

“The history of individual busts is […] part of the history of science and violence of Europeans, but also evokes the history of individuals from different parts of the world. As such, the busts shed light on how people around the world have long been part of a complex, interconnected world, marked by violence and dehumanization, but also by dissent, curiosity and friendship.”

The book receved the following nominations: Fjöruverðlaunin (The Women’s Literature Prize) 2023, Hagþenki’s (The Association of Icelandic Non-fiction Writers) recognition 2023 and the FÍT award 2024. It received the Booksellers’ Prize 2023 in the category of non-fiction books, manuals and biographies.