diff --git a/HISTORY.txt b/HISTORY.txt
index 87aea06..99226a3 100644
--- a/HISTORY.txt
+++ b/HISTORY.txt
@@ -1,6 +1,14 @@
 Changelog
 =========
 
+1.4.1.post0+emmv
+------------------
+
+- Migrated build system to PEP 517/621.
+- Added pyproject.toml with modern metadata.
+- Declared dynamic readme using setuptools to combine README.rst and HISTORY.txt.
+- Removed legacy setup.py-based build path to avoid deprecation warnings.
+
 
 1.4.1 (unreleased)
 ------------------
diff --git a/README.rst b/README.rst
index 6ba0d20..71a5da4 100644
--- a/README.rst
+++ b/README.rst
@@ -2,6 +2,10 @@
 *docxcompose* is a Python library for concatenating/appending Microsoft
 Word (.docx) files.
 
+This fork adds the PR 112, Fixed DeprecationWarning on pkg_import, by
+@numshub
+and modernizes the build system for Python >= 3.8.
+
 
 Example usage
 -------------
diff --git a/docxcompose/properties.py b/docxcompose/properties.py
index aa8cd2d..51f2ac0 100644
--- a/docxcompose/properties.py
+++ b/docxcompose/properties.py
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@
 from lxml.etree import QName
 from six import binary_type
 from six import text_type
-import pkg_resources
+import importlib.resources as importlib_resources
 import re
 
 
@@ -108,8 +108,8 @@ def __init__(self, doc):
             self._element = parse_xml(part.blob)
 
     def _part_template(self):
-        return pkg_resources.resource_string(
-            'docxcompose', 'templates/custom.xml')
+        ref = importlib_resources.files('docxcompose').joinpath('templates/custom.xml')
+        return ref.read_bytes()
 
     def _update_part(self):
         if self.part is None:
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..99487ee
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -0,0 +1,55 @@
+[build-system]
+requires = ["setuptools>=68", "wheel"]
+build-backend = "setuptools.build_meta"
+
+[project]
+name = "docxcompose"
+version = "1.4.1.post0+emmv"         # PEP 440-valid
+description = "Compose .docx documents"
+requires-python = ">=3.8"
+license = { text = "MIT License" }
+
+authors = [
+  { name = "Thomas Buchberger", email = "t.buchberger@4teamwork.ch" },
+]
+maintainers = [
+  { name = "Emmanuel Viennet" }
+]
+
+keywords = ["Python", "DOCX", "Word", "OOXML"]
+
+classifiers = [
+  "License :: OSI Approved :: MIT License",
+  "Operating System :: OS Independent",
+  "Programming Language :: Python",
+  "Programming Language :: Python :: 3",
+  "Programming Language :: Python :: 3 :: Only",
+  "Programming Language :: Python :: 3.8",
+  "Programming Language :: Python :: 3.9",
+  "Programming Language :: Python :: 3.10",
+  "Programming Language :: Python :: 3.11",
+  "Programming Language :: Python :: 3.12",
+  "Programming Language :: Python :: 3.13",
+]
+
+dependencies = [
+  "lxml",
+  "python-docx>=0.8.8",
+  "six",
+  "Babel",                         # (same as 'babel'; keep if upstream uses it)
+]
+
+[project.optional-dependencies]
+test = ["pytest"]
+
+[project.scripts]
+docxcompose = "docxcompose.command:main"
+
+[project.urls]
+Homepage = "https://github.com/emmanuelito/docxcompose"
+Repository = "https://github.com/emmanuelito/docxcompose"
+
+
+# declare readme dynamically via setuptools
+[tool.setuptools.dynamic]
+readme = { file = ["README.rst", "HISTORY.txt"], content-type = "text/x-rst" }
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
deleted file mode 100644
index 1d7d53c..0000000
--- a/setup.py
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,50 +0,0 @@
-# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
-"""Installer for the docxcompose package."""
-
-from setuptools import find_packages
-from setuptools import setup
-
-
-tests_require = [
-    'pytest',
-]
-
-setup(
-    name='docxcompose',
-    version='1.4.1.dev0',
-    description="Compose .docx documents",
-    long_description=(open("README.rst").read() + "\n" +
-                      open("HISTORY.txt").read()),
-    # Get more from https://pypi.python.org/pypi?%3Aaction=list_classifiers
-    classifiers=[
-        "Programming Language :: Python",
-        "Programming Language :: Python :: 2.7",
-        "Programming Language :: Python :: 3",
-        "Operating System :: OS Independent",
-        "License :: OSI Approved :: MIT License",
-    ],
-    keywords='Python DOCX Word OOXML',
-    author='Thomas Buchberger',
-    author_email='t.buchberger@4teamwork.ch',
-    url='https://github.com/4teamwork/docxcompose',
-    license='MIT license',
-    packages=find_packages(exclude=['ez_setup']),
-    include_package_data=True,
-    zip_safe=True,
-    install_requires=[
-        'lxml',
-        'python-docx >= 0.8.8',
-        'setuptools',
-        'six',
-        'babel',
-    ],
-    extras_require={
-        'test': tests_require,
-        'tests': tests_require,
-    },
-    entry_points={
-        'console_scripts': [
-            'docxcompose = docxcompose.command:main'
-        ]
-    },
-)