Interlude: The reader’s traces

Books in libraries are public items; many different people have read the same copy. Each reader leaves its own traces and marks: a piece of paper used to separate the pages in the book, a note, a train ticket; they become unresolved texts, hints to be disclosed. The discovery of these traces works as an opening up, occupying an intermediate space or an iterative time. These interruptions suspend the continuous accumulation of knowledge, interrupt its slow development, and force to enter a new time, cut it from its original motivations. Mariana Castillo Deball investigated how the collections of public libraries in Berlin, New York and Paris are used and asked 11 contributors to produce a nomad text, a loose page to be inserted into the books of the libraries. Each contributor was also responsible for the strategy of distribution within the library: whether it was made for a particular section, a particular selection of books, a specific page, or if it was to be given to all the readers in one day, etc. All the inserts were printed and distributed according to the contributor's instructions in public libraries.