I have for a long time been curious about people’s bookshelves and their collection of books. A representation of interests, origin and knowledge. A bookshelf’s content is a way of representing your self. In fiction the bookshelf have in many stories a secret passage, a hidden door. I reinvent the hidden door and see the information the books in people’s bookshelves give access to. The titles give us access to a part of a hidden structure, or to enter a supernatural realm.
The task I gave friends was to take a s(h)elf portrait of their collection and for some to answer the questions. I told them to do it personal and to use any camera like their digital camera or mobile. From there I traced the shapes of the bookshelves to create a new base of knowledge. The individual bookshelves became a group portrayed and three-dimensional within a new book. My plan is to take that from this sketch to make a real shelf made out of 12 peoples grids of knowledge.
