The Enemies of Books
– Performance-foredrag om bogen som objekt og materialitet, digital død og skyggebiblioteker

Olle Essvik er kunstner, kurator og forlægger fra Göteborg. Hans arbejde kredser om publicering i en postdigital era, bl.a. andet gennem en kombination af klassiske bogbindingsteknikker og digitale opperationer.

Aftenens performance-foredrag kredser om bogen som objekt og materialitet, om den digitale død, om bogen som alternativ og kommentar til digitalisering, publicering og skyggebiblioteker. Forelæsningen kombinerer Olle Essviks egne og andres projekter, med oplæsning af tekster fra 1800 tallet og frem, performative indslag og film. Det starter med en digital fil og slutter med en bog. En kunstnerisk undersøgelse af bogens fremtid gennem materialer, digitalisering og menneskelige spor.

Arrangeret af Antipyrine Bookstore, Kunsthal Aarhus og Projekt Art Writing

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The Enemies of Books
– Performance-lecture on the book as object and materiality, on digital death and shadow libraries

Olle Essvik is an artist, curator and publisher from Göteborg. He’s work is focused on publishing in a post-digital era, practiced through the unconventional combination of traditional bookbinding technics and digital operations.

This evening’s performance-lecture focuses on the book as object and materiality, on digital death, on the book as an alternative and comments on digitalisation, publishing and shadow libraries. The talk combines Olle Essviks own works ass well as others, withe readings of texts from the 18th century and forward, performance elements and film. Et begins with a digital file and ends with a book. An artistic inquiry in the future of the book through materials, digitalisation and human traces.

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Enemies of books
I download the book from the Internet, https://books.google.com/, Enemies of books, written by William Blades, published in 1881. A book on the decay of books. The enemies of the physical book – fire, water, gas, the bookworm, dirt, bigotry etc. A digitized book with no identity. Black letters on a white background. I buy a copy of the book from 1881. A yellowed, and stained copy. The book bears traces of a former owner, one Dr. Sarolea. Newspaper cuttings on his death and his extensive book collection. I compare the two texts, the original and the digitized copy. Using my computer I create a tool for binding books. I combine and modify traditional tools that have been used for hundreds of years and print out the components on a 3D-printer. The next day I print out another copy of the digitized book, and using the 3D-printed tool I make an exact replica of the book from 1881, in its original design. I construct a manual describing the process and upload the files to the Internet.”
This is a description of a project which I begun in 2014. A project exploring digitization, human traces and the unique copy, and at the same time an act of resistance against digitization and technology. The outcome of the project was a book, presented together with the tool used to produce it.