Chained Library

Chained Library
2023
Six found books, wood, engraved brass plaques, brass clasps and chains
Height variable x 32” w

From the Middle Ages into the 18th century, books were chained to shelves or pews. This was not only a way of cataloguing and ordering the books (the row’s contents were listed on the end of the shelf or bench), they were also a way of protecting precious books when they were made available to the small but reading general public. Reading is a seedling of revolution, and chained books bring up questions of who has access to information and who controls it. Wars have been waged for millennia in the name of religion to exert and maintain power, and they continue to be fought. The six books in this piece comprise world religions, and are inscribed with the first date or era that it was banned or burned for religious reasons. The chained book is a metaphor for ideas being chained shut, for information access and its counterpart, censorship.