This bilingual publication – produced in collaboration with Mana Pinto and Chiquita Room Gallery – juxtaposes a selection of early photographic postcards depicting women engaged in the act of reading, with the contents of a fictional library devised in 1712 by Anne Baker in response to the failure of The Spectator (the most popular periodical of its time) to produce a promised list of recommended reading for women.
Both the images and text attest to the complex relationship between the book and social identity. As the academic Melanie Bigold states in her essay for the publication, 'the formation of a library is a creative and cultural act, and collections of books—whether read or not—are conduits for self-definition.'
72 pages, 11 x 18 cm, softcover, Twenty Shelves (London) x Chiquita Room (Barcelona).