Hackney ‘Anti-Library’ celebrates unread books

The Anti-Library at Space Studios

Ever bought a book knowing you would probably never read it? Meaty classics like Wuthering Heights can be hard to get through and now a gallery in Hackney has recognised this, launching an exhibition of unread books.

​The show, aptly entitled The Anti-Library, proudly displays books which have never been finished or perhaps even opened by the owner.

​The curator of the exhibition, Paul Pieroni, asked 150 of his friends to contribute a book accompanied by a short note explaining why it had remained unread and abandoned in their bookshelf for years.

​Reasons given for acquiring unread books varied. ​Emily La Barge contributed The Wife Tree by Dorothy Speak to the Anti-Library confessing “My mother wrote this book, but I never read it… She didn’t know, until now, neither did anyone else.”

​Tom Ellis donated his father’s book, On Narcotism By The Inhalation of Vapours , admitting he still hadn’t read it despite having it in his personal library for decades.

​​Other contributors referred to old friends. Ben Sansbury, who gave The Baron in the Trees by Italo Calvino, said the book belonged to a friend: “We tried contacting him but he refuses to respond…we can’t store it for very much longer.”

​Adam Faramawy, who gave The Spirit of the Age by William Hazlitt, said: “This book is a memento mori for me as it belonged to a friend who died, and whenever I open it I see his notes peppered through the pages like thoughts from the grave.”

​However, some reasons for not reading a book were more straightforward. Kathy Noble, who gave Wuthering Heights, explained it “has always defeated me”.

​Gallery goers are encouraged to read the books on display and the notes that go with them.

Paul Pieroni, when asked to explain the meaning behind the exhibition, said, “There isn’t a single idea behind it for you to work out.

​“It ‘s to do with what a book is beyond its reading, what knowledge is when we face up to what we don’t know.”

​The Anti-Library
Until 17 December 2011
Space Studios
129-131 Mare Street
Hackney
E8 3RH
020 8525 4330