Fine Art Of Book Destruction On Display At Library January 8, 2010

Books Destroyed In The Name Of Art. (Photo Courtesy Of Linda Thompson For The Missoulian.) The University of Montana’s Mansfield Library will play host to a controversial art exhibit beginning January 7, 2010. “Speaking Volumes: Transforming Hate” is an exhibit based on the deliberate destruction of books. A feature article on the exhibit in the January 3 Missoulian Online generated a firestorm of heated comments, pro and con. Roughly 4,000 books were rendered unreadable by…

A Library At The End Of The World January 6, 2010

Abdoul Wahim Abdarahim Tahar of Timbuktu holds a book that has been in his family for generations. ( Photo courtesy of Karin Brulliard, The Washington Post.) According to a 2006 survey conducted by its Ministry of Culture, 34% of Britons thought this city “no longer existed” and the remaining 66% thought it was “a mythical place.” They were 100% wrong. Timbuktu is a very real city today, and has been since at least the 10th…

Flamboyant Frontier Photographer Leaves Legacy To Library January 4, 2010

Portrait of the Artist As A Frontiersman: Joseph Bevier Sturtevant. (All photos by J. Sturtevant, Courtesy of Boulder Historical Society Local History Collection, Carnegie Branch Library.) Joseph Bevier Sturtevant was a prolific photographer who settled in Boulder, Colorado in 1876. That much is certain. On December 30,2009 according to the online Colorado Daily, Boulder’s Carnegie Library got nearly 1,600 pictures to prove it. The photos, donated to the local history collection, are in black and…

Christie’s Poison Pen Inspires Garden December 31, 2009

A Plaque Honoring Agatha Christie At Torre Abbey. It is a quiet killer. Portable, difficult to detect, easy to use, and you can grow it right in your own backyard. We’re talking poison. A favorite weapon of the fair sex, enabling even the daintiest femme fatale to dispatch a hulking muscleman twice her size. Perhaps this is why the queen of mystery writers, Agatha Christie, was so partial to it: poison is the method of…

Lost Souls Are Contained In "The Library of Dust" December 30, 2009

Canister #55-559 (All Photos By David Maisel.) “Avoid the world, it’s just a lot of dust and drag and means nothing in the end.” –Jack Kerouac. The crematorium, autopsy room, and hallways of an outbuilding at the Oregon State Hospital, formerly known as “The Insane Asylum,” need to be cleaned. Not exactly a plum assignment. So a prisoner from a nearby penitentiary has been brought in for the job. He’s perfect for it. He has…

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