Thomas Huber Andere Bibliotheken

A Library in White

Building instructions: A few simple shelves, as shown here in the picture, are usually available. If not, they can be easily assembled. A few clean boards will do the trick. Place the shelves at right angles to each other in the place you want your library. There's still a draught in the library, but as you gradually put your books on the shelves, it will become cosier. And people who walk by the outside will be astonished that the books have made the library completely white.

Written on Skin

If only there were an undiscovered fluid. Let us assume we've found it. We can paint our skin with it, making visible the suffering and joy that life has brought us. We can read our deeds; or have commands been written on our bodies? And we discover ancient words on the inside of our elbows - scratched there long before our time.

The Two Sides

There are two sides to every coin, or so the saying goes. This is especially true of books. In the first place, every page of a book does in fact have two sides, a front and a back. What's even more interesting is that a book can never be opened to one page only; two pages are always visible. Thus it becomes clear that books are especially well-suited for reporting on good and evil, the two sides of the world.

Libraries in the Time of Love

Two people have fallen in love, and now they've decided to live together. Along with many other things, they bring their books to the joint household. The concept of the shared library can be decisive for the marriage. Will they arrange their books separately on the shelves? Or will a system be employed that does not take into account to whom the books once belonged? But what system? Will this be the cause of quarrels? Perhaps the two people are able to reach an agreement, live together and receive more books as presents. These are also put in the library. And then the couple wants to break up. And the books? The couple can't bear to divide the library. So they stay together in their library that originated in the time of love.
Vases

Ancient scrolls have been found in clay vases. When I read about how computers will look in the future, I think of these vases. Vast quantities of data could be stored inside clay vessels. In large vessels and small. After all, a vase sitting on a table is prettier than a computer. Also, our files would not only have a surface, as we view them today on the screen, but the dimension of depth. Knowledge would gain volume.

Preparations for a Small Library

You only need a board. You affix it to the wall with the necessary supports. Not at home, no, but in the office or the workshop - at your place of work. You then put two or three of your favourite books on the shelf and ask your co-workers to place their favourite books there as well. You will thus create a small library in your immediate surroundings. Others will read your favourite books, just as you read theirs; and suddenly entirely different conversations will be possible.

Suggestion for a Public Library

Within the framework of a competition for the creation of a public library, he submitted a design for a huge shelf of cast bronze that would be accessible to all. There was unanimous approval for the design, since he illustrated so well the concept of the "public." The project was realised. Unfortunately, no one foresaw that the large books necessary for this shelf didn't exist, and nor would books be able to survive exposure to the elements for any length of time. That's the problem with such illustrations: they look good but hardly ever work.

Three Banners

"It can happen," he said, "that sentences, spoken in spaces, do not fade away, but linger on. They endure, so to speak." Such a space is always occupied, he said. And everyone who enters this space is affected, addressed, by what once was said. Nothing helps, he said. "It can happen, really." He said.

Imaginary Libraries

A thing and its opposite: Where does the biggest difference in the world exist, one would like to know. For him, it is the difference between word and image. Language is the border in front of images, just as images exclude what is spoken. At this border, both of these - language and image - conceive each other, he said, challenging each other, so to speak. Without image, nothing would be articulated in language. On the other hand, language contains the imperative possibility of conjuring up images. But the difference always remains, the inability of the one to catch up with the other.

Painted Library

The good thing about painting is that it creates space. It opens up space. If you have no more space for your books, you paint yourself some. It doesn't cost much. It only requires a little skill. Many people require a lifetime to acquire this skill, a lifetime to preserve it.

A System for a Library

You arranged your books by colour, I still recall that, and sometimes by size. I can remember that well. As well as I came to know you, you were foreign to me the first time I saw how you arranged your books. I always said: it's clear how I should arrange my books - for the simple reason that my interests are so limited. You can count them on five fingers.

Memories

Books are always smaller than the spaces of memory that they open up within us. If he had to paint a picture of his books, he would paint rooms, very large rooms, and a person would see different-shaped vessels on the walls. Even the vessels would be very large. Then he would be able to walk from one room to the next and take pleasure in the view of the vessels, bowls and cups.

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