The Oxford Dictionary defines a book as an object containing a bound set of written or printed work consisting of pages glued or sewn together along one side and bound in covers. Some people buy a collection of books to place on their bookshelf, like pieces of art, or as a backdrop to promote their professional or political orientation, as seen during lockdown online conversations. I personally view a book as being more than its cover, a book is only fully functional when knowledge has been extracted from its pages and used.
Recently, I was telling a friend about my floating bookcase project and the way in which I was re-purposing books. What do you mean they asked? ‘Well,’ I answered ‘I have taken old worn-out book covers, stripped out their pages then used the spine of the book cover to print onto canvas’. They were horrified that anyone would sacrifice a precious book, suggesting instead that I should have placed them on a shelf, just in case someone, sometime in the future needed to use them. But then again through my textile design I am intentionally using imagined language to share stories with human connections and ideas that have a modern relevance. And using a familiar narrative of books on a bookshelf, expecting the viewer to see and interpret the world around them with meaning or significance.
Whether you see my action as sacrilege or re-purposing old books, the aim is to target the willingness of the audience to mentally participate in the construction of narratives. For some this piece may remind them of lived experiences and their personal relationship with books, this could be family memories, from education, from social history such as the deliberate destroying of books or the migration from physical to digital books.
By Diane Daune - Fellowship Student