Book Case
Book Case is a cumulative art project and a record of images of abandoned books. Each of these found books conjure up stories, depending on their age, condition, and cover. Each image shrouds a book in mystery – it can no longer be opened, read – its contents are withheld. Their scale increased, details affirm yet do not reveal its history as an object, positioning the observer as narrator of the title's contents and history.
Book Case ranges from "An Illustrated History of the Holy Bible," published in 1873, to "Madonna: Unauthorized," published in the 1992. The initial concept came out of a response to the mass looting and destruction of historical public archives and museums that took place in Baghdad,Iraq, in April of 2003. I had suddenly developed an acute attention to the urgency of books. What would result from the planned obliteration of a nation's recorded history, I wondered? What presence does a book have? What is the significance of a book's history and how does this relate to its contents?
I feel that this body of work is coming at a particularly interesting point in time. Ironically, it is increasingly rare to see individuals reading books in the information age, preferring instead the internet as a source of information. The profitability in book publishing is decreasing and small presses are no longer able to survive, rendering a decrease in the production of books.
By taking these books out of their normal three dimensional space and presenting them as enhanced two dimensional visual representations, I can focus the imagination on the art object as a book.
Sanaz Mazinani, 2004