Libraries are generally perceived as storehouses, spaces of stable accumulation and containment. While the architecture may attempt to operate in this stable tone, the material contained within them is often far wilder. Histories, biographies, loose thoughts, detailed notations, bodies, and objects are all temporarily suspended, cataloged, and organized, creating relationships where perhaps previously there was none. An example of where the tension between what is contained in libraries and how it is contained emerges in a highly palpable way in the trajectory of the Staatsbibliothek Berlin. This new artist book by Ruth Buchanan charts three narratives associated with the life of this particular library. The anecdotes become both concrete examples and metaphors through which to interrogate the production, situating, and sharing of meaning.

With texts by Ruth Buchanan and Ian White. Designed by David Bennewith.

An artist publication produced by gerlach en koop, “Two seconds from the film ‘Close-up’ by Abbas Kiarostami (1990), starting from the moment the aerosol can is being absentmindedly pushed with the tip of the shoe. Because the street slopes down the empty can rolls on for about half a minute, further and further away from the camera, until it is stopped by the curb…”

Produced on the occasion of the exhibition ‘The Autumn of Modernism’ at De Vleeshal, Middleburg.

An artist publication produced by gerlach en koop, “One and a half second from the film ‘Late Spring’ by Yasujiro Ozu from 1949, shortly after one of the two main characters leaves the house of her friend in a hurry, and just before we see her walking down the street.”

Invitation produced on the occasion of gerlach en koop’s exhibition :, at the Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht, 15 April–27 November, 2016.

Exhibition guide was produced on the occasion of Choses tuées, held at de Appel arts centre in Amsterdam, 2015.

The collective artist gerlach en koop renders things visible by repetition, copying or reuse, by displacement and misplacement, by omissions, erring and making mistakes. The smaller the distance between two identical things—differences that sometimes can only be conceived of—the more interesting.

Exhibition guide was produced on the occasion of Choses tuées, held at Temporary Gallery, Köln, 2016.

The collective artist gerlach en koop renders things visible by repetition, copying or reuse, by displacement and misplacement, by omissions, erring and making mistakes. The smaller the distance between two identical things—differences that sometimes can only be conceived of—the more interesting.