Ruins of the Future: From the Penal Colony to the Library

Is it possible to imagine a world without prisons, penitentiaries and other spaces of detention and exile? Ruins of the Future tells the story of France's most notorious and longstanding penal colony. Located in French Guiana, over 70,000 convicts were sent there over a hundred year period. The story of the penal colony, its closure and ruination is told through the individual biography of Icek Baron, the last known living former convict in French Guiana. Icek went on to work as hospital librarian and today the municipal library in Saint Laurent du Maroni is named after him.

Ruins of the future takes its inspiration from other comics and graphic novels dedicated to prison abolition and imagining other worlds are possible. The comic features graphics from nicole marie burton, comic scenario by Hugh Goldring and research by Sophie Fuggle. It also includes a dossier and further resources for readers wanting to know more about this dark and complex part of French history.