From the demolished library
Of the 530 books rescued
A book of books.

This is my favorite "book of books," and I discovered it five years ago at the Motto Berlin bookstore.530 books in Southend Central LibraryThe word "Invocation" comes from the Latin verb "invocare," which in the Middle Ages meant a prayer to God recited at the beginning of a ritual, and earlier it meant a spell to summon spirits or demons.Magical WordsIt was. Now it has been used in various scenes such as "executing the law, praying in mass, starting a computer". That's why this book is tailored as "a book for summoning books". I would like to briefly introduce the background of why it has such a strange name.

The origins of this book lie in the demolition of Southend Central Library, a local symbol of Southend-on-Sea, England. A new public facility was built on the site of the library, incorporating a contemporary art gallery, Focal Point Gallery. This artist book was produced in 2013 by British artist Mike Nelson as the opening work for the new facility.

The 1,000-page book contains the front and back covers of 530 books that Nelson himself rescued from the pile of books removed from the demolished Southend Central Library. It is easy to say that it is a book of scanned images of book covers bound together, but as Mallarmé said, "the world exists to lead to a book," and it is a book that was removed from the only library in the area.one bookFor it to disappear would be like an unknown world disappearing from the city. Perhaps NelsonLike thatSo Nelson came up with the idea of creating a book for books, as a magic spell to summon the lost book (world), or as a "start command" for a computer.

As for the types of books included, there are literary works such as Jules Verne's "A Trip to the Moon," Orson Welles' "The Trial," and Andrei Tarkovsky's "The Tarkovsky Diaries," but there are also many books from the margins, such as "Third Edition: A Guidebook to Mexican Coins."

The selected books will be randomly placed on the left and right sides of the spread.The rule seems to be that the back cover (Table 4) is placed on the left page and the cover (Table 1) is placed on the right page, but the combination is random, which is what makes it interesting.For example, a strange double page spread has been created with "Snoopy" on the left page and "Colonel Gaddafi" on the right page.When scanning books,It seems that they insisted on making it 100% original size.The images of the larger books are cut off halfway through. This is also quite difficult to do, but I think the author wanted to preserve the "history of the lost books" rather than just store the bibliographical information. As if to leave only a faint scent behind. As I leafed through this light and thick book,They will never be next to each other on the library shelves.Books of all different genres, publication years, and author nationalities are lined up like a celebration.

Nelson has also created a "hidden installation" inside the walls of the new gallery using books removed from the old library. The books cannot be seen as they have been locked away in gaps inside the walls; this book is the only record that can be seen. When asked to describe the installation, Nelson said, "The book is the installation."

The supplement booklet "Interview" includes the following:With Mike NelsonDirector of Focal Point GalleryAndrew Hunt'sThe interview includes information about the installation and publishing process, as well as side stories.Nelson's reading history is also shown.Nelson, an avid reader of Stanislaw Lem and J. G. Ballard, has always been fascinated by the imagination of science fiction. He says he has always sought ways to visualize things that no one has ever seen before. This "visual utopia," something that is invisible but certainly there, is exactly what Nelson wanted to achieve with this publication and installation.

Nelson was born in Loughborough, England in 1967.Loughborough), and currently lives and works in London. He represented the UK at the 54th Venice Biennale (2011) and has had exhibitions at Malmö Konsthall (2012), Tate Britain (2010), ACCA (2006), Turner Contemporary (2005) and Camden Arts Centre (1998), among others.



Text by Osamu Kushida