Books for This Century

In this ongoing research project, I examine new roles for the physical book in our fast-paced, digital, impermanent world

More than ever, we need books. We need books, but not in their out-dated capacity as bearers of information, as our window to other worlds and ideas.
What we need now is their stillness, their seclusion, their calm authority. We need the book’s permission to withdraw, to retreat into our personal space and pace. We need its lack of movement, its material permanence, its patient waiting for our return.
Perhaps we long for the book’s reassuring monotony, its meditative rhythm, its simplicity of printed words and still images, which requires an effort on our part but does not outsmart us.