If you’ve never been to Forecast’s office in St. Paul, you probably don’t know that we house a public art resource library of around 1,500 books, catalogs, magazines, and DVDs! Our library is growing so fast that soon it will outgrow its current digs and I guess will have to spill out into the street. Although we definitely need more physical space for the library, virtual space is not lacking thanks to LibraryThing and Forecast interns Jaclyn + Pati!
Check out our library online and be in touch if you’d like to see some of these fabulous titles in person!
And stay tuned for more info on exciting new books (and a look back on older classics as well).
Artists’ libraries (recent)
Martha Rosler Library "Books at the artist's home, 2005" via eflux
“Comprised of approximately 7,700 titles from the artist’s personal collection, the Library was opened to the public by Anton Vidokle in November 2005 as a storefront reading room at e-flux, on Ludlow Street in New York City. It has since traveled to Frankfurter Kunstverein; MuHKA, Antwerp; unitednationsplaza, Berlin; Institut National d’histoire de l’Art, Paris; the John Moores University, Liverpool; and the Stills Centre, Edinburgh. The Library will remain on view in Amherst through December 10th, 2009, after which the books will be finally return to Martha Rosler’s home.” via eflux
Unpacking My Library: 10 Architects & Their Books, Ric Diller + Liz Sccofidio
“Unpacking My Library: 10 Architects & Their Books. This exhibit by the MAS bookstore Urban Center Books takes a look at the libraries of some of the most influential New York architects working today. It documents the architects’ personal book collections, offering an intriguing look at what has influenced them intellectually. Throughout the next 12 months a different architect will be featured every month, and the exhibit opened in May with a look inside the library of controversial architect Peter Eisenman, and currently features the books of Ric Diller and Liz Scofidio.” via Municipal Art Society of New York
Airan Kang, "109 Lighting Books" in the group exhibition "Textual Landscapes" at Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery. Source: Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery via Rhizome.
via Rhizome
Michael Mandiberg, FDIC Insured, 2009. Installation view, Eyebeam.
“This is “FDIC Insured” a collection of 130+ cast off investment books from the Strand dollar racks, engraved with the logos of all of the failed banks of the Great Recession. The work is primarily old found books cut with the laser cutter, as well as some laser cut drawings.” – Michael Mandiberg
Prelinger Library.
“An appropriation-friendly, image-rich, experimental research library. Independent and open to the public.” – via Prelinger Library Blog
University of Openess, Faculty of Taxonomy Library. Installation view, Banff Center Library for "Database Imaginary" exhibition.
“For Database Imaginary, the University of Openess – an online, open source, unaccredited university – inaugurated a Faculty of Taxonomy to work together with its other faculty (Cartography, Physical Education, Problem Solving) to investigate the naming and filing structures that permeate our lives. Faculty activities exhibited include take-away game sheets for playing “categories†and a distributed, anti-systemic library of readings about taxonomies and databases. Users are invited to contribute to and re-catalogue these readings. The Faculty of Taxonomy Library is exhibited within the Banff Centre Library.” – via Database Imaginary
Also
The above projects are more or less actual libraries. The library, of course is also a site for many artists.
- Simon Biggs, Babel, 2001
- Mel Chin, Recolecciones, 1999
- Adriene Jenik, SPECFLIC 2.0, 2006
- George Legrady, Making Visible the Invisible: What the Community is Reading, 2005-2014
- Simon Pope, Performance Corridor, 2007
- Ben Rubin, Four Stories, 2006
- Camille Utterback, Word Play, 2008