Landscape with Books

Chris Engman. The Library, 2005

Engman got the books “at a discounted rate from a used bookstore, where many of them had sat on shelves for more than a decade, unwanted, ” and constructed The Library in the desert of eastern Washington State.

Haunting in its barrenness yet the mere existence of this textual outpost offers a glimmer of hope.

What did the last visitor take with them? What will the next one find? How much time is left before the desert wins?