What happens when books become part of an artwork? And what does that tell us about the nature of books? This summer the Lewis Glucksman Gallery addresses these questions with Bookish: When Books Become Art, an exhibition that explores the changing status of books, as featured in sculpture, film, photography and other art forms. Bookish is an exhibition which presents artists that have used books at the core of their work; from Hans-Peter Feldmann's life-scale photograph of his own book shelves, through to books being used as sculptural material in works by Damien Roach and Richard Wentworth. Books are mobile objects that are shared, borrowed, and circulated; connecting people and places together. For many of the artists featured in Bookish, books are a way of referring to a broader set of relationships. Some artists refer to specific books that have a historical and cultural importance; books that once proposed new ways of living which are now gathering dust. Other artists in the exhibition explore books in a more general sense, and their failed capacity to bind together the world's knowledge in neat and convenient volumes. Bookish is running from 1st July to 26th October.
