McConnell Library of Radford University is working with me to develop this project. ­This link takes you to their on-line catalog where entries for some of my books can be found:

http://lib.radford.edu/   (click on Library Catalog and then enter “Charlie Brouwer” as a keyword)

This project combines the qualities of individual sculpture, site-specific installation and public art. My book sculptures are made to be catalogued and “installed” on library shelves and they become public art as library visitors see them on the shelves, take them off, and borrow them.

As books, I intend them to be read. Each one has a content implied by its color and the words and symbols cut or carved into it. “Reading” the books involves the kind of observation, and intuitive meditation normally used in approaching art rather than the connecting of thoughts contained in the sentences, paragraphs and chapters of traditional books.

This project is a collaboration – the library staff chooses to become involved, first by agreeing to shelve the books, and then by making the decisions, based on their perception of the content of each book, regarding where they belong in the catalog system. Their choices affect the context of the books and their meaning.

The books are not for sale to individuals. I intend them only for libraries –to catalog, shelve available to me checked out to the public. Eventually there will be a set of 7 books for sale to libraries for $1000.

Examples of some of my books at McConnell Library:

Transcendence

Longing

Time Passes

Math

Science

Desire

Ethics

Ethics (front)

Ethics (back)

They Declare

War & Peace