Bookish, a group show curated by Matt Packer. Artists: Lewis Glucksman Gallery, Cork, 2008 Le Livre sur le Livre The project Le Livre sur le Livre, as shown in the exhibition Bookish, focuses on the book as a medium for distribution of knowledge. The starting point is the book "Traité de Documentation, le Livre sur le Livre" by Paul Otlet, 1934. It is a self-reflective book which is trying to come to terms with what a book really is (by the use of equations), and what problems the book represents (in organizing information). Paul Otlet is by some considered a father to information technology, and the man who foresaw the internet. A search on the internet, by using a search engine related to the mechanical one Otlet was envisioning in the 1920's, will take us to the original French version of the book. "Traité de Documentation, le Livre sur le Livre" has been scanned and uploaded, and everybody is free to download the file. This digital version of the book is what charged my project, since the self-referential book gets another meaning when freed from its original format. My project was to bring the book back to its original format. I printed it from the internet and bound it, thus making the book move full circle back to its initial self-referential format. The book was presented on a plinth in the Glucksman Gallery, in front of two extracts from the book printed on large scale sheets of vinyl imitating an open book. Review in the Circa Art Magazine
|
