For Books & Other Utensils, Specimens from the collection of an bibliophilic analphabetic we filled ten glass showcases of the Leiden University Library with objects demonstrating varying 'improper' uses of books (other than those exercised by the students). We had collected miniature books, to be stuck on oversized butterfly pins and shown together with index cards describing and categorizing the books. At the opening, some of the librarians were extremely upset and needed to be reassured that these books had not been taken from the library's own collection.
The series words at war consisted of twelve popular novels telling of the horrors of WWII, which served as donor books for paper models. These paper models of tanks, ruined buildings, military camps, airplanes, trucks, anti-aircraft-artillery and broken vehicles were cut freestyle in one session from a book's page. The connection with the book was maintained by a paper umbilical cord. In the showcases we arranged the objects in war-like situations, with plains attacking tanks and derelict trucks blown to pieces. An arrangement especially attractive to males, as it turned out.
overview of the exhibition in the main library hall
book specimens on pins with library cards
There is a number of ways one can 'record' images in books. Turning a book into a pinhole camera is one of them. With our 'pinholed' book we took ten photos of the interior and exterior of the library building, a remarkable creation of a local postmodern architect. Never before had a library been seen through the 'eyes' of a book. This particular books turned out to have a rather warped view on buildings.
Apart from the showcases we had designed a special reading table for one of the main halls of the library. Integrated in the reading table was a deWijs stereo viewer filled with stereoscopic slides from the lush, tropical vegetation growing inside the library. The table also featured two built in weather stations to measure humidity and temperature.You wonder, "Lush, tropical vegetation in a library? But shouldn't a library preferably have a dry climate?" Yes, indeed. However, the capriciousness of the postmodernist architect had resulted in insurmountable construction problems, one of them being a rather leaky glass roof of enormous proportions. The top floor coco matting had patches of moss growing on them. When it rains, librarians have learned where to place buckets underneath the larger leaks. On the whole, they seem to cope quite well with the quirks of this otherwise charming building.
(first exhibited in 1998)
