Artist's Book Yearbook 2003-2005 - Book Arts - University of the ...

As the books continued their transformations,
the Millennium Collection also accumulated.
TNWK invited 1,000 people to contribute an
item to the collection and the reason for it
being not worth keeping. The contributions
formed the basis of a touring exhibition Not for
Sale that travelled around various car boot sales
in the UK by London Taxi Cab, before
completing the journey at The End of The Line
where the items were exhibited in a skip
outside the Platform Gallery in London from
21st - 31st May 2001. Once the skip had been
unveiled, the next five days were continually
recorded on CCTV as items were dispersed or
added to the collection by visitors or passers by,
up until the last day when the skip was driven
to the local tip and the contents disappeared
into the ether of London’s debris.
One entry from the Millennium Collection, TNWK, 1999
The physical record of the Millennium Collection
is a publication of the 160 page, catalogued
selection of items submitted and the reasons
for their inclusion. Some of the submissions
and their reasons for being not worth keeping
include: “a small, bird shaped plastic whistle
(which does not whistle)” “an old key (no idea
what it opens)” “one Barbie shoe measuring
30.5 mm (it is too poignant a reminder of the
loss of the other)” “a five pence piece (useless
for a phone box call, buys nothing)” “a Free
Nelson Mandela badge (because he is free)”
and my favourite entry; “a Space Pen (it is
heavy, hard to grip…a pencil would be more
convenient. It is also unlikely we’re going to
space, or need to write with it underwater).”
Images of submitted items can also be viewed
via the Millennium Collection link at the TNWK
website.
All of the events inspired by and developed
from the books demonstrate the infinite
possibilities of their interpretation at the hands
29
(and minds) of TNWK. The next incarnation
appeared on 13th April 2002 with the first issue
of the subscription series titled The Books. Each
instalment is presented in the same format;
20 x 20 cms, with a plain white cover and the
title: The Books, nothing is given away until you
read on.
Reading The Books is the visual equivalent of
stepping into a library and hearing each book
give you a line from its text – all at the same
time, some shouting, some whispering. Some
things can be read instantly, others take a little
while as the text pieces overlap and intersperse
themselves through the pages. The texts within
the books are live discussion pieces, streams of
consciousness pouring out from single starting
points, and reading through these is similar to
eavesdropping on someone else’s conversation.
A blow-by-blow analysis of The Books could be an
impossible task, 101 individual stories, each
from the unwanted have transformed into a
new engagement and conversation with others.
Detail from: Book One: The Gathering, TNWK, 2002
Book One: The Gathering this time we go back to
the beginning, the books have been “read,” the
images and text from all the appearances to
date are reappraised, the discussions have
explored all of this and more; the pact is sealed
and the story begins to unfold anew.
This is more than a documentation of how
The Books came to be; this is the start of their
united, translated voice about to be heard, the
first whisperings of a battle of Frankenstein
with the minds of their new creators.