Reads Like a Book
The Book Lovers exhibition
23 January–15 March 2015
Opening: Friday, January 23, 7pm
Centre for the Documentation of the Art of Tadeusz Kantor, Cricoteka
Nadwiślańska 2-4
Kraków
Poland
www.news.cricoteka.pl
www.thebooklovers.info
Artists: Jill Magid, Cheng Ran, Lindsay Seers
Artist novels by: Matthew Brannon, AA Bronson, Jake Chapman, Keren Cytter, Salvador Dalí, Tim Etchells, Matias Faldbakken, Liam Gillick, Goldin+Senneby, Rodney Graham, Renée Green, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Pablo Helguera, Stewart Home, Isidore Isou, Pierre Klossowski, Joseph Kosuth, Yayoi Kusama, Jana Leo, Jill Magid, Tom McCarthy, Brian O’Doherty, Mai-Thu Perret, Tom Philips, Francis Picabia, Richard Prince, Stuart Ringholt, Roee Rosen, Lindsay Seers, Alexandre Singh, Cally Spooner, Oscar Tuazon, Andy Warhol, and many others
Curated by: David Maroto and Joanna Zielińska
Reads Like a Book strives to prove that literature, when treated by visual artists, can take place well beyond the space of the book. The Book Lovers project investigates the many ways in which artists conceive their novels as part of their art projects. For artists like Jill Magid, Cheng Ran and Lindsay Seers the novel is not only a literary product of narrative fiction, but they also employ their novels as they would video or installation—as an aspect of a larger work or body of works. The three projects displayed in Cricoteka have something in common: they all have prepared a complex world of connections waiting to be unraveled through the use of one’s imagination and curiosity. Each element is linked to the next one by means of a narrative thread that connects them to a coherent whole. The novel offers a key to interpret what the spectator sees, so that many times it is possible to “read” the novel without opening the book. The three installations provide an immersive experience to the viewer, who literally walks into a narrative space. Many times the spectator only has access to fragments that belong to a larger narrative. The present exhibition aims at making such a narrative visible, readable.
The novels of Jill Magid, Cheng Ran and Lindsay Seers are included in The Book Lovers artist novels collection, displayed at the center of the exhibition and available for public perusal. The visitor will find the richness in the diversity of artists’ different creative strategies. Complementing the collection, more than 360 titles are included in the first bibliography of artist novels, which is freely available in an online database. Both the artist novels collection and database are generously supported by M HKA, Museum of Contemporary Art in Antwerp.
Additionally, the Artist Novels publication will be published in February by Sternberg Press and Cricoteka. The book is devoted to the phenomenon of the artist novel, and whether it can be considered to be a medium in its own right within the visual arts. It contains newly commissioned texts, as well as transcriptions of lectures and conversations organized in the framework of The Book Lovers, excerpts of artist novels, reprints of relevant texts and an annex called “First Published,” with excerpts and facsimiles of artist novels published for the first time for a large audience. Contributions from Roland Barthes, Matthew Brannon, Guy de Cointet, Henry J. Darger, Liam Gillick, Kenneth Goldsmith, Yayoi Kusama, Jill Magid, Tom McCarthy, Ingo Niermann, Seth Price, Seth Siegelaub, Monika Szewczyk, et al.
The Book Lovers is a long-term project about artist novels by David Maroto and Joanna Zielińska. Through a series of exhibitions, public programs, pop-up bookstores, a symposium, and a publication, The Book Lovers investigates the use of the novel as a medium within the visual arts.
Thanks to the generous support of: Ministry of Culture and National Heritage in Poland, M HKA (Antwerp), Mondriaan Fonds (Amsterdam).
