- Venue
- Site Gallery, Liverpool John Moores University
- Location
- North West England
I first mistook the Martha Rosler collection as a 'touchable' archive of artists' books. Which I felt rather excited about as this was a rare and bold thing to do. As summer heats up so does the activities of artists' books, with exhibitions like Blood on Paper – the Art of the Book at the V&A and Press & Release, Phoenix Arts, Brighton. Exhibitions like these always arouses debates of how artists' books should be presented and how one should interact with them. Press & Release actually tries to highlight these queries by having a sculptural showcase, designed especially to allow different types of interactions with the books; from books sealed in glass cases to books suspended from the ceiling.
On one side there is always the need to protect these sometimes delicate and limited edition objects. But on the other there is the opinion that the glass cased displays of how these books are commonly presented, defeats the purpose of how an artists' book works, where their qualities are found in being able to feel the weight of the book, the textures of the paper, to the turning of the pages.
The Martha Rosler is in fact a collection of her own private books. A personal research library she has created for herself with a mixture of books she likes and things of interest in general. Stemming from a suggestion by curator Anton Vidokle the Library was first exhibited as a solution to Rosler not having enough space in her flat.
It is this reason that lends a curious angle to what is presented. The way the collection is marketed does not pose as anything else but a library. It looks and functions like one and is affirmed by its latest addition of a labeling system at the LJMU . It is not a collection that is by all means full of books that are exclusive and unobtainable on the contrary there are many books commonly accessible elsewhere. But it is definitely set in an gallery type of space and the already personal quality is enhanced by the fact that it has the artists' favourite radio show on throughout the opening, giving you that privileged feeling of being permitted to rife through someone else's private and intimate possessions. A feeling that provokes respect without the stuffy preciousness.
It is highlighted that the collection is not in any way an intention to reflect a personal portrait of Rosler, but there is something said in the fact that it does not try to claim to be anything else but what it is. Whatever it was I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity of being able to just freely dip in and out of anything that took my fancy. And it definitely satisfied my ideal of how things can be learnt and how environments can allow new possibilities. It was also great that there was a free photocopying service for things I particularly wanted to take note of.
