The Library of Unwritten Books

[squirmelia]

The Library of Unwritten Books is currently being displayed on shelves at the Aspex Gallery (and various other places) in Portsmouth. The library's collection stems from descriptions about books that people have said they would like to write. These ideas were transcribed and then added to the library as a small book. Some of the books I read were from Portsmouth's Chinese Community, and others had originated from London. They varied in size from about 2 lines to about 8 pages, and a lot of the books just seemed to contain people's memories, which were not always that interesting. I preferred the books that sounded more fantastical, the books that sounded as if they were by children - short tales of ballerina colouring books, animals, and strange happenings.

Here is a part of Book 001, named "The End", by an anonymous person:

'The book would be red and white. That's all I know. The colour of snow. I don't think it would have pictures.

And yes, it is about isolation. Maybe the whiteness is the blank page. Maybe it's the blank page.'

Comments

[squirmelia.livejournal.com]

The Aspex gallery did seem quite hard to find, but is moving at some point to Gunwharf, I think, so maybe it will be easier to find then. Apparently, some of the books can be found at cafes, public libraries, doctors' surgeries, etc, so maybe you will just come across them sometime somewhere random. :)

[illaor.livejournal.com]

I did manage to find it today, although it wasn't where I expected and I wasn't actually looking for it at the time. Turns out I've been walking past the street it's on pretty much every week, but had never really noticed the sign at the end of the street pointing to the gallery.