Sorted Book: a sideways look at the library
NINA Katchadourian orders books to create something new. She says:
“You know how when you’re in a library and you walk along the stacks of books and turn your head to the side and read the titles? I thought it would be amazing if accidentally the titles formed a sentence, and then I realized I could make that happen.”
On her website:
The Sorted Books project began in 1993 years ago and is ongoing. The project has taken place in many different places over the years, ranging form private homes to specialized public book collections. The process is the same in every case: culling through a collection of books, pulling particular titles, and eventually grouping the books into clusters so that the titles can be read in sequence, from top to bottom. The final results are shown either as photographs of the book clusters or as the actual stacks themselves, shown on the shelves of the library they were drawn from. Taken as a whole, the clusters from each sorting aim to examine that particular library’s focus, idiosyncrasies, and inconsistencies — a cross-section of that library’s holdings. At present, the Sorted Books project comprises more than 130 book clusters.
Her book Sorted Books can be bought here.
Spotter: Sarah P.
Posted: 18th, March 2013 | In: Books Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
